The CNMI Board of Nurse Examiners signed an agreement Monday allowing Tinian Health Center\u2019s registered nurse to have more authority in writing and dispensing prescriptions.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Aurelia G. Long, an advanced practice registered nurse for THC, can now prescribe and dispense medicine to patients with \u201cremote supervision\u201d 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. <\/p>\n
THC is left without a medical physician in light of Toledo\u2019s resignation. It was later learned that Toledo had let his medical license lapse on July 15 without informing THC or Long. <\/p>\n
Until the agreement was signed, Long and Terri Clawson, THC physician assistant, lacked solo prescription authority. <\/p>\n
Long said she feels comfortable with the extra authority.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do understand my scope and clinical judgment,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Long said it is important chronic patients are readily able to receive their pain medication.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is for some serious pain,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can\u2019t just withdrawal them.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are currently 15 to 20 patients taking schedule II drugs, some of them war veterans, Long said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The CNMI Board of Nurse Examiners signed an agreement Monday allowing Tinian Health Center\u2019s registered nurse to have more authority in writing and dispensing prescriptions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}