Last week the Department of Health proposed an extension of nurses' prescribing powers to meet changing demands of out-of-hours care but nurses say it is not enough.
Matt Griffiths, joint prescribing adviser at the Royal College of Nursing and senior lecturer in prescribing at Homerton College, Cambridge, said: "The entire British National Formulary (drug list) should be opened up to appropriately qualified nurses limited only to their own competence."
According to Fiona Smith, paediatric nursing adviser to the RCN: "There is a shortage of registered children's nurses at the moment, but there is no shortage of applicants."
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