Advice For Nurses And Midwives For The Administration Of Botulinum Toxin, UK

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has issued an advice sheet for nurses and midwives who administer Botulinum toxin. The advice, available on the NMC website is to be read in conjunction with the Standards for Medicine Management (2007) and clarifies the NMC's position regarding the administration of Botulinum toxin from a remote prescription.


The NMC does not consider it to be best practice to administer Botulinum toxin that has been prescribed remotely by a medical practitioner or by an independent prescriber who has not assessed the patient as this is contrary to the guidance issued within the NMC Standards for Medicine Management (2007).


NMC professional advisor, Liz Plastow said: "Botulinum toxin like all medicines has the potential to give rise to side effects and adverse reactions. If a nurse or midwife administers this from a remote prescription they are jointly accountable for this action. If a reaction occurs, although the prescriber would be liable for prescribing the drug the nurse or midwife would be accountable for their assessment of the patient and the administration of the drug."


The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the UK regulator for two professions, nursing and midwifery. The primary purpose of the NMC is protection of the public. It does this through maintaining a register of all nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses eligible to practise within the UK and by setting standards for their education, training and conduct. Currently the number of registrants exceeds 682,000. The Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001 (The Order), sets out the NMC's role and responsibilities.


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