Setting up Nurse prescribing for Independent/Supplementary Nurse Prescribers

To set up an Independant/Supplementary Nurse Prescriber within Vision:

1. From the Vision front screen, select Management Tools – Control Panel and then select File Maintenance.
2. Select the nurse you are allocating prescriber rights to and select Edit .
3. Select the Professional tab.

   

4. Complete as follows:
   • Role - Select from:
   • Practice Nurse
   • Health Visitor
   • Community Nurse
   • Midwife
   • Community Psychiatric Nurse
   • Hospital Nurse
   • School Nurse
   • Mental Handicap Nurse
   • Pharmacist
   • Prescribing No – In order to enter a Prescribing number, Independent Presc must be ticked, or a Formulary selected. The format of prescribing numbers differs in according to the country.
   • Scotland - The prescribing number is a 5 character alphabetic field. The first is the Health Board cipher, the second two are the unique identifier for the nurse, and the last two identify the practice. This can be entered in either upper or lower case and is converted to upper case for the record.
   • England - The prescribing number is an 8 character alphanumeric field with the format NNANNNNA where N is a number and A is a letter, e.g. 12A3456B. This too can be entered in either upper or lower case and is converted to upper case for the record.
   • Northern Ireland - The format for nurses is a four digit number (pricing numbers).

     Pharmacists who are Supplementary Prescribers need to enter their RPSGP code and tick Supplementary Prescriber.

   • Formulary - There are still a few Community practitioner nurse prescribers in practices. If you want to use this option, select from:
   • Nurse Formulary (the default)
   • Extended Nurse Formulary
   • Independent Prescriber Formulary, available if Independent Pres. is ticked.

     Note - The formulary list will only be available if both a Prescribing Number and a suitable role are entered.

   • Supplementary Prescriber or Independent Prescriber - Tick as appropriate. These boxes can be left unticked if the nurse still prescribes from a formulary and you just want to enter a Prescribing Number and one of the Formulary options. Supplementary prescribers prescribe under the guidance of a GP and a patient care plan. The modern parlance is Community Nurse Practitioner Prescriber or Independent/Supplementary Prescriber. If independent prescriber is selected, the drug dictionary filters drugs which independent prescribers can prescribe.
   • Employed by Practice - Ticked by default to signify the nurse/SP is employed by the practice. If the nurse/pharmacist is employed the Clinical Commissioning Group (England), Health Board (Scotland and Wales)/Local Commissioning Group (Northern Ireland), then untick this box and select the organisation for which they work in Employer. This organisation should previously have been entered in Control Panel - File Maintenance - Organisation.

5. If the nurse is permitted to print private controlled drug prescriptions, select the Identifiers tab. Now select Add and choose PCD code (England) or IPC code (Wales) enter the appropriate code, in England the code has the format 6AAAAA (eg 6ABCDE) and in Wales, the IPC code has the format PNNNNNN, eg P123456. This includes nurse SPs and IPs in England, IPs in Wales, and SPs and IPs in Northern Ireland. Nurses in Scotland are not permitted.
6. Finally, select OK to save and close.