Imagine that your elderly father is in a nursing home for the elderly. It’s Friday afternoon and he’s out of his regular pharmaceutical advantages program (PBS) hypertension medications and can’t make an appointment with a family doctor.
Currently, a registered nurse (RN) in a nursing home can assess his blood pressure to see whether it is stable and administer medications prescribed by the doctor. But the RN cannot write a brand new prescription.
From October 1, this may change.
This is due to latest regulations has been passed to enable specially qualified RNs to prescribe a spread of medicines.
The key change is that they might be subsidized by the PBS. Here’s why it matters and what it means for you.
Wait, cannot nurses prescribe anymore?
Yes, some nurses can.
Nurses prescribe medications in Australia for: over 20 years.
However, nurse practitioners are different from newly designated RN prescribers.
Practicing nurses are registered nurses who’ve accomplished additional university studies – a master’s degree – to give you the option to perform additional responsibilities. They can perform advanced health assessments, order diagnostic tests, and diagnose and independently treat acute and chronic diseases.
Nurses can even prescribe medications themselves, which implies they don’t have to be supervised by a physician.
Designated RN prescribers are certified nurses who’ve accomplished specialized postgraduate units and are authorized to prescribe certain medications. From October, the scope of those nurses shall be expanded to incorporate PBS drugs.
However, designated RN prescribers cannot prescribe medications themselves – they need to collaborate with a physician or nurse practitioner to prescribe medications. The difference is that the doctor or nurse doesn’t must visit the patient each time.
The drug categories RN prescribers will give you the option to prescribe:
- popular over-the-counter medicines intended just for pharmacists (Appendix 2 and three)
- prescribed drugs (appendix 4)
- some controlled medicines (Annex 8) that require additional safeguards and monitoring.
The latest regulations entered into force in September 2025.
What has modified?
The important change is that from October, designated RN prescribers will give you the option to prescribe PBS drugs.
Until the brand new regulations were passed on July 2, designated RNs could prescribe drugs, but their patients didn’t have access to the PBS grant.
Under PBS, patients only pay a co-payment – i.e covered A$25 each and A$7.70 for discount card holders – as an alternative of the complete private price.
For people taking multiple medications, this may mean saving lots of and even 1000’s of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses.
For example, someone taking three long-term prescription medications can pay as much as $900 a 12 months in PBS co-pays. Private costs might be much higher, especially within the case of newer drugs.
However, when RN-designated prescribing was first introduced last 12 months, there was no guarantee that it will cover those funded by the PBS.
So this latest laws is a key change to make sure that patients don’t do that pay extra for medications from the designated RN prescriber.
How will registered nurses qualify?
Not every RN will give you the option to prescribe the drug.
Designated RN prescribers must:
- have extensive experience as an RN (corresponding to three years of full-time work inside the last six years)
- complete an approved postgraduate degree
- complete a six-month clinical internship under the supervision of a physician or nurse
- be formally approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Australia.
Their education focuses on how one can assess patients, discover health problems, prescribe medications, and advise patients how one can use medications safely and effectively.
The first graduates of those accredited courses have graduated and others have graduated second half of 2026.
Who will this profit?
People in aged care, palliative care and rural and distant communities could also be among the many first to note the difference. These are facilities where access to doctors and nurses could be very limited and cause delays in obtaining the suitable medicine.
People who use mental health services and treat chronic conditions can also profit, as these conditions often require regular reviews and adjustments to medications.
Expanding prescribing options to qualified RNs could make it easier to access care closer to home when needed.
For example, imagine an individual with asthma who works and lives on a distant farm.
When symptoms worsen, they go to an urgent care center, where the prescribing RN determines that the inhalation therapy must be adjusted. The nurse can write a brand new script, which is able to help avoid long-day waits for an appointment with a family doctor or perhaps a visit to the emergency room.
What else must be sorted out?
It remains to be unclear what PBS drugs nurses will give you the option to prescribe.
However, access is anticipated to be limited to medications appropriate to the nurse’s education, experience and area of practice, which is able to help ensure secure prescribing as the brand new model is implemented.
State and territory laws still have to be updated, particularly in relation to controlled medicines akin to opioids before the assigned RN can begin prescribing.
Questions remain about how individual health services will implement the changes: what medicines shall be allowed to be prescribed by qualified nurses, who will provide clinical supervision and mentoring, and the way monitoring will work to make sure patient safety.
There are also questions on the workforce.
Will RN prescribers be situated in areas where treatment delays are best? Will there be incentives to encourage them to work in rural areas? Will the health service be supported in freeing up nurses for education and mentoring?
Conclusion for patients
The goal of this reform isn’t to switch doctors or nurses. It goals to make health care more equitable and reasonably priced.
If implemented well, this could mean patients can have fewer delays in starting treatment, renewing scripts and responding to health conditions as changes arise.