SUMMARY - Safe Medications Management project: Key issues and ...

management. These Guidelines have the endorsement and support of Australian andState/Territory health and ageing authorities: the nursing, medical and pharmacy professionalorganisations, and of aged care and general practice industry peak organisations.The Guidelines for Medication Management in Residential Aged Care Facilities is under review;however the appendices to their documents are not to be included in the review and areconsidered by the industry to be outdated and not reflective of industry workforce or practice.Other guidance documents which were, until July 2010, widely used by nurses in the field, werethose developed and distributed by the former nurse registration boards in each of the states andterritories. There was, however, no uniformity across these documents. This was also the casewith the various health departments’ guidance documents developed for staff of department runfacilities to address medication management (generally or in aged care) and the various roles.The range of these documents covered inter alia,general Standards, Codes and Scopes of Practice for Registered Nurse (RN) Enrolled Nurse(EN) or Midwife practice,Standards specifically for RN and/or EN medication management,policies on delegation by RNs to ENs and/or other unlicensed health workers (variouslytitled), guidance for medication management for high care residents in aged care,position statements and policies on dose administration aids (DAA), and on use ofcomplementary and alternative medicines.Some of these documents included references to:the applicable jurisdiction’s drugs and poisons regulation,national health practitioner legislation, andcodes and guidelines such as the APAC Guidelines.Queensland Health has produced a very comprehensive handbook on “The Health (Drugs andPoisons) Regulation 1996 - What Nurses Need to Know”. The Victorian Department of HumanServices, in partnership with GP Divisions and service providers, has published a comprehensiveguide to implementing the APAC Guidelines for Residential Care.The Victoria Department of Health has produced the Drugs and Poisons Controls in Victoria,managing drugs in residential Aged Care and Key requirements for nurses in residential Aged CareServices.Neither the new Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, (nor the newly tasked and renamedAustralian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council) has developed standards or guidelineswhich specifically address medication management or aged care. Nurses must now understandand apply the relevant national nursing competency and registration standards, and decisionmaking frameworks, and their organisation’s own policies, to inform their practice, accountabilityand delegation of medication management in aged care.2.2.2.2. Professional Organisation documentsThe main documents identified were the:19