Nurse lecturers' observations on aspects of nurse prescribing training

In the UK, nurse prescribing training is delivered within a Higher Education Institution (HEI). Although prescribing courses are regularly evaluated by individual HEIs and associated commissioning bodies, there has been little focus on the perspective of the lecturers who provide the training. The aim of this paper is to explore nurse lecturers' experiences of delivering nurse prescribing courses and their views on how well they prepare nurses for the prescribing role. Eight members of lecturing staff (7 female and 1 male) from four HEIs across the West Midlands participated in one-to-one, semi-structured interviews to discuss their experiences of prescribing training. Key issues to emerge were the selection criteria for acceptance onto prescribing courses; the diverse skills, experience and background of the nurses accepted; the addition of supplementary prescribing to independent prescribing courses, and the problems of providing pharmacology input into courses. Feedback from students and lecturers is vital to ensure the quality of training. The study recommends that selection criteria for prescribing training courses should receive further attention. Providing more material for potential students prior to their embarking on training would help applicants understand better what is involved and ultimately improve implementation of nurse prescribing in practice.