History Taking & Physical Assessment and Independent Prescribing Course

If you have been working as a Practice Nurse or Paramedic for more than 2 years and are starting to wonder what to do next, you have several options to think about. The following may help to guide your decision about your next steps:

• Do you want to do an accredited course in a particular clinical area, e.g. diabetes, asthma, COPD? If you haven’t already done one, then you will need to have developed this level of knowledge before you start to do an Independent Prescribing (IP) Course.
  Please contact your Borough Training Hub lead to find out about funding for CPD to cover the cost of this. You could also ask about Legacy Nurse (LN) support. An LN can come to your practice and sit in with you when you see patients for the clinical area you are learning about e.g. diabetic patients, asthma patients, etc.
• If you have already developed specialist knowledge, then you can apply to do your IP Course.
  BUT …
• Do you want to specialise OR do you want to become an Advanced Generalist? Doing the IP Course is for Nurses / Paramedics who want to specialise … i.e. remain working with a specific group of patients (Diabetic, Respiratory) and would like the ability to be able prescribe within that speciality.
• If you are more interested in becoming an Advanced Practitioner – seeing patients present with undifferentiated problems (a cough, chest pain, low back pain, etc) then you need to do the full Advanced Practice MSc and not the IP module.
  If you are interested in doing the AP Course, please contact your Borough TH lead who can send you the relevant information.
• If you have already done the History Taking & Physical Assessment course, you can apply to do the IP course and will receive a maximum of £2,000 or the cost of the course, whichever is less.

This application is for those nurses/paramedics who wish to specialise and use Prescribing within their specialist role. Once you have completed the application form please send this via email to either Karen [email protected] or Sally [email protected].