RIPRN

= RIPRN - Rural and Isolated Practice Registered Nurses =

RIPRN is a conversational abbreviation used for a classification of nurses holding the post-nominal RIN.

In Rural and remote Queensland Australia, nurses who are advanced practicing may complete a course of study that allows them to become endorsed as a Rural and Isolated Practice Registered Nurse (RIPRN). The program of study is delivered at a Graduate Certificate level or Masters Degree level and is recognized by the Queensland Nursing Council (QNC).

Once endorsed nurses may use a set of legally sanctioned standing orders called Drug Therapy Protocols(DTP) to administer and supply drugs that usually require a medical prescription. Further information on the RIPRN nurse can be found at the peer reviewed article below [(Timmings 2006)] .

If completing the course through Queensland Health as the education provider, the program includes written and practical assessment over a 9 month period of time. The working policy used by RIPRN nurses is called the Primary Clinical Care Manual (PCCM) and is updated in line with Cochraine data and other EBM sources every two years to remain current. This PCCM is a collection of protocols which the RIPRN must use to satisfy legislation when giving medications to rural and Isolated area patients.

Course content

Content of the program includes
* State Law and Nursing Ethics (Module One)
* Pharmacology (Module two)
* Three comprehensive Primary Health Care Case studies
* One chronic disease Health promotion Project
* 20 advanced clinical skills eg ACLS, Trauma Nursing skills, suturing, IV cannulation, advanced airway skills, adult and paediatric assessment skills
* Documentation Audit
* Peer to peer telephone communication assessment

Click here [http://www.health.qld.gov.au/cunningham/] for a link to the Cunningham Centre who is one of the Queensland Government organisations that offer this program for course info.

1. Timmings R. Rural and Isolated Practice Registered Nurse (RIPRN)—–Emergency nurses of the Queensland ‘bush’. Australasian Emergency Nursing Journal 2006;9(1):29-34. [http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1574626706000024]