Dietitians to Authorise the Prescribing of Special Foods

27 May 2011

Taranaki Dietitians are now authorised to prescribe minerals, vitamins and special foods to their patients.

Taranaki DHB Advisory Dietitian Gillian Gonthier says the final part of the accreditation course took place in New Plymouth on Saturday 28th May.

She says it is good to be recognised for the clinical skills that we have. "It is also good news for people who live in rural and provincial areas, who may have found it difficult to access specialists able to prescribe funded Special Foods. This improves our ability to meet the need of patients requiring special diets."

In the past patients who require special diets have had to go through a specialist to obtain their special foods, and this now gives qualified dietitians the authorisation to do this.

The course is specifically designed to allow New Zealand dietitians to develop a thorough understanding of the legal, administrative and technical issues pertaining to the prescribing of special foods and vitamins, minerals and supplements, and to demonstrate competence in prescribing of these for the purposes of accreditation as a dietitian prescriber.

The course is provided in two formats. The on-line section covers the legal and practical issues associated with prescribing as well as the pharmacological basis of prescribing practice.
The second format is a ‘face to face’ study day, where issues are be clarified, clinical cases discussed, and a practical assessment of prescribing competence occurs.

The New Plymouth Study day was the fourth to be held since the beginning of the year - other courses have been held in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Another two courses are planned to be held in Nelson and Tauranga.

Dietitians NZ welcomes the decision by PHARMAC to authorise dietitians to prescribe Special Foods.

Pharmac has announced new rules that come into effect from 1 April that authorises dietitians to prescribe Special Foods. This includes foods such as gluten-free foods and specialised infant formula. Until now, it was within the dietitians’ scope of practice to prescribe special foods but the funding rules only allowed prescribing by certain specialists.

Objectives of the Course

Upon completion of this course the registered dietitian is able to:

Demonstrate an understanding of the legal and ethical obligations and considerations that pertain to dietitian prescribing of special foods and related products
Discuss the roles and obligations of all parties involved in the prescribing process (prescriber, dispenser, funder etc.)
Write a prescription for those products that the Dietitians Board consider to be within a Dietitians scope of practice, being special foods, vitamin products, mineral products and oral electrolyte replacement products, that fulfils the legal requirements for a prescription. This includes checking processes, sources of information and the mechanics of writing a prescription.
Discuss the basic principles of therapeutics (mechanisms, indications) and pharmacokinetics (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion) of agents prescribed within the dietitian scope
Demonstrate an understanding of the potential adverse reactions and interactions associated with these products with other medications
Demonstrate clinical decision making skills in prescribing in a range of scenarios related to current dietitian practice

For more information please call
Sue Carrington
Media Adviser
Ph 021 367 789

Last updated: Tuesday, February 11, 2014