NURSES AS DISPENSERS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 511, 19 May 1909, Page 8

NURSES AS DISPENSERS.

..-SUGGESTED ; AMENDMENT OS/THE PHABMACI AC7T. ;,:/:, ',:':.; i tar tjlmbajhe.—sricm. ooßßßspoimsirtJ. Auckland,: May 18 A proposal emanating from Dr. Mackellar, an Auckland physician, that an addition bo mad© to the Pharmacy Act enabling regis■tered nurses who desire to pass the Pharmacy Board examination to serve the; required apprenticeship in the dispensary of a large hospiiil came before the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board at yesterday's; meeting. Dr. Mackellar saidithat the present Act required that candidates desirous of becoming, qualified pharmacists must be apprenticed for three years to a qualified.chemist, and druggist; who keeps an open shop, - an arrange-' ment that ho considered almost impossible for various reasons, which, he stated. In hosprtals, on the othor hand, economy, and the natural desire of physicians to prescribe medicines in certain proportions or combinations for hospital patients in whose case the effects would be more continually watched and the results more easily recorded than, in private practice, both tend to maintain a large percentage of prescriptions made up in the hospital dispensary,' and to limit the use of ready-made preparations. For these reasons it was evident that; pharmacy pupils in the larger hospitals like those of Auckland, Christdrarcn, Dunodrn, and Wellington would see as many prescriptione made up as in a chemist's shop. The Hospital Committee reported on the proposal with the' suggestion that it be sent to the Pharmacy Board with the farther suggestion; that, if necessary, the Pharmacy Act should be amended so that nurses could become .qualified dispensers, under that Act. The committee did not approve of the suggestion that the training of nurses in pharmacy should be elementary only. The committee's recommendation was adopted,- and the 'board further decided that copies of : the proposal be Bent to the hospital authorities at Wellington, Christchnrch, and.Dunodm.