International Nurses Day #3 Did you know that nurses can prescribe medications, too?

Dr. Andrea Hilton: Non-medical prescribing programme lead  

Today we're celebrating International Nurses Day 2017, and sharing the diverse skills and knowledge of our nurses. 

Occasionally, colleagues, patients and other members of the public don't realise that many nurses can prescribe medication, and this extended role is one that contributes enormously to our forward-thinking and fast-evolving professional status.

The original policy plan for non-medical prescribing dates back to 2000.  Since 2006 appropriately qualified nurses have been able to prescribe  a range of drugs from the British National Formulary (depending on the sphere of competence of the individual practitioner) and now includes unlicensed and controlled drugs (there are a few exceptions).   At the University of Hull we offer a full range of prescribing courses for NMC registrants as well as pharmacists and some allied health professionals.

Kirsty Fishburn: Non-medical prescribing module lead for nurses

There has been a plethora of research and reporting undertaken to evaluate non-medical prescribing including an Evaluation of nurse and pharmacists independent prescribing  (Latter et al., 2010) and more recently a Cochrane review on “non-medical prescribing versus medical prescribing for acute and chronic disease management in primary and secondary care (Cochrane, 2016)

We continue to aspire to extend our skills and knowledge and being able to prescribe medication is a huge step towards this.