The effectiveness of nurse prescribing in acute care

The role of nurse prescriber has been recognised in the community since the 1990s but it was only in 2002 that it was extended to acute care. At the time of the study, little was known about the impact and effectiveness of nurse prescribing in the acute setting.

To evaluate the implementation of nurse prescribing roles at an acute trust in England.

A mixed-methods, single-case study was carried out in 2005-06. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 hospital staff, two doctors and two nurses undertaking 52 patient-prescriber consultations involving 47 patients were observed, and 74 patients were surveyed using a questionnaire.

Nurse prescribing was found to benefit patients through improvements in service delivery and better use of staff skills. No differences were found between the ways in which doctors and nurses performed prescribing roles but there was between the medicine-related satisfaction ratings of patients seen by a nurse compared with those seen by a doctor.

Nurses and doctors provided equivalent care. Nurse prescribers were crucial to the success of the initiative because of their enthusiasm, motivation, drive to succeed and a shared vision supporting prescribing roles.