ASCP: Nurses Should be Doctors' Agents for Pain Meds

The American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, or ASCP, strongly supports allowing nursing home nurses to act as agents on behalf of physicians for the purpose of prescribing pain meds. The group has asked the DEA to consider incorporating this change into the Controlled Substances Act.

According to ASCP's president, Shelly Spiro, "Recognizing nurses as agents of the prescriber and chart orders as valid prescriptions will eliminate the regulatory bureaucracy creating delays for patients in need of pain relief."

Currently, the DEA defines "agent" as someone employed by the prescribing physician. Because most physicians who prescribe pain meds to nursing home residents aren't actually employed by the nursing home, nurses at these facilities technically can't act as their agents.

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