Some of the country's biggest hospitals and special-care units will be part of pilot projects to allow nurses prescribe certain drugs independently of doctors for the first time, it emerged yesterday.
Nurses who have undergone special training will be involved in the initiatives at about 15 locations, such as the Mater Hospital's accident and emergency unit and the Rotunda Hospital's neo-natal unit in Dublin, Tullamore General Hospital's cardiac unit and St Mary's, Co Louth.
A Department of Health spokesman said some 100 drugs would be authorised for use. These include antibiotics, paracetamol, blood-thinning drugs, tetanus shots, anti-inflammatories, adrenaline and eye drops.
The projects were drawn up in consultation with An Bord Altranais, the regulatory body for nurses, the Medical Council, the Irish College of General Practitioners and the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland.
They are seen as a forerunner to extending wider drug prescription rights to the nursing profession.
However, the Irish Medical Organisation, which represents 6,000 doctors, criticised the "lack of consultation" over the projects and said it wished to have a role in the development of prescription rights for nurses.
