Patients' views of nurse prescribing.

Abstract

In 1994 the law was changed to allow nurses to prescribe from a limited formulary. The Department of Health commissioned research to evaluate nurse prescribing in eight pilot sites in England. This article presents part of this research. In particular, it examines how patients perceived the role of nurses and health visitors as prescribers. The study involved interviewing patients seen by community nurses before and after the introduction of nurse prescribing. The advantages patients identified coincided with the anticipated benefits, while the disadvantages that had been anticipated before the study were not confirmed. Patients were positive about nurses as prescribers and in some instances preferred nurses to doctors.