Scenario: You receive a prescription from a nurse practitioner (NP) for a controlled drug or substance. You look up the NP on the nurse prescriber list on ACP’s website, and notice that her restriction from prescribing controlled drugs and substances is still in place.
Answer: Before you refuse a fill, contact the College & Association of Registered Nurses (CARNA) to confirm the registrant’s prescribing status.
Why contact another college?
The prescriber lists on the ACP website are not updated in real-time. We rely on other colleges to provide us with their registrant data for these lists. They provide the lists to us, and ACP registrants, as a courtesy.
Most colleges provide updates regularly. However, gaps can occur, usually due to vacation or staffing changes. Therefore, you should always regard the other colleges as the root source of information when it comes to their registrants’ prescribing authority.
The following colleges provide ACP with prescriber list updates:
- College & Association of Registered Nurses (CARNA)
- College of Dietitians of Alberta
- College of Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA)
- College of Registered Dental Hygienists of Alberta (CRDHA)
The following colleges provide all or some prescriber data on their websites:
- Alberta College of Optometrists
- Alberta Veterinary Medical Association
- College of Midwives of Alberta
- College of Podiatric Physicians of Alberta
The Alberta Dental Association + College does not provide prescriber data online—please contact them directly with questions about dentist prescribers.
