Independent prescribing supporting the delivery of the public health vaccination programme

The parameters of non-medical prescribing have changed since its introduction in 1994. In July 2000 nurse independent prescribing was introduced, this opened up the opportunity for many practitioners to incorporate this into their practice. The national childhood immunisation programme is an area of practice that has not required the use of independent prescribers. Their skills can provide support to the effective and efficient delivery of the vaccination programme through enabling the work of a mixed skills team. Doncaster in South Yorkshire was one of the Public Health England pilot areas for the secondary school aged children in years seven and eight in 2014. This paper details the use of independent prescribing by a practitioner to sign patient specific directions for health care support workers to administer the nasal flu vaccine to children clearly identified in it. This process required the development and implementation of a clinical skills training package for health care support workers to administer the flu vaccination (FluenzTetra) nasal vaccine. Also governance arrangements needed to be in place to support this change in practice in the delivery of the childhood influenza immunisation programme. This enables nurses and health care support workers to practice safely and within acceptable and legal boundaries.