Nurses and medical specialists share their thoughts on Bill 31

Nurses ask for clearer wording in amendments to Pharmacy Act

The Quebec Order of Nurses (OIIQ) submitted a brief yesterday at the Nation Assembly as part of the consultations on Bill 31 amending the Pharmacy Act.

The OIIQ welcomes several proposed amendments that will undoubtedly promote better access to health services for the entire population and greater interprofessional collaboration.

The main recommendation made by the OIIQ concerns the reformulation of the wording of the addition, to the Pharmacy Act, of a new activity allowing pharmacists to assess a person's physical and mental condition in order to ensure the appropriate use of drugs. This activity is worded in the same way as the Nurses Act.

"There must be no ambiguity or confusion for the public between the assessment activity performed by the nurse and that performed by the pharmacist. The evaluations are different and complementary. It is important that the patient be able to know which professional to refer to according to his or her needs. This is why we are asking that the wording of the two activities be separate," commented Luc Mathieu, President of the OIIQ.

The activity of assessing a person's physical and mental condition is at the heart of nursing practice. It is not limited to data collection. It is a complex process that requires the nurse to make a clinical judgment about a person's overall health situation in order to detect health problems. The practice of pharmacy consists in monitoring drug therapy in order to detect and prevent problems related to drug therapy. The pharmacist's assessment is not based on the same clinical approach.

See page 5 for more on Bill 31