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Tinian Health Center’s nurse is OK’d to dispense prescriptions
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Posted on Aug 11 2008
The CNMI Board of Nurse Examiners signed an agreement Monday allowing Tinian Health Center’s registered nurse to have more authority in writing and dispensing prescriptions.
The move comes as the Commonwealth Health Center searches for a new medical doctor on the island after Dr. Ronaldo Toledo resigned unexpectedly at the end of July.
Aurelia G. Long, an advanced practice registered nurse for THC, can now prescribe and dispense medicine to patients with “remote supervision” by a CHC physician. The remote supervision can be conducted by telephone, existing telemedicine facilities, or via the Internet. The agreement lasts through Aug. 31, 2009. A physician will review patient charts and prescriptions every six months.
THC is left without a medical physician in light of Toledo’s resignation. It was later learned that Toledo had let his medical license lapse on July 15 without informing THC or Long.
Until the agreement was signed, Long and Terri Clawson, THC physician assistant, lacked solo prescription authority.
Long said she feels comfortable with the extra authority.
“I do understand my scope and clinical judgment,” she said.
Under the agreement, Long will be able to write and dispense schedules III through V medications, such as antibiotics, Motrin or other over the counter medicines. Schedule II medications, such as vicodin and methadone, will be co-signed by a medical physician.
Long said it is important chronic patients are readily able to receive their pain medication.
“This is for some serious pain,” she said. “You can’t just withdrawal them.”
There are currently 15 to 20 patients taking schedule II drugs, some of them war veterans, Long said.
