Non-Medical Prescribing: Nurses' Course, Benefits, and Drawbacks

This report provides a comprehensive overview of non-medical prescribing, delving into its origins, particularly the evolution of healthcare professionals' roles. It explores the advantages and disadvantages for nurses undertaking this course, examining the high demand in the market, flexibility, and potential drawbacks like physical strain and long working hours. The report also investigates the educational facilities available for achieving this qualification, highlighting the challenges within nursing education, such as aligning with practice environments and continuous curricular changes. It underscores the importance of inter-professional healthcare training and faculty challenges, concluding with the benefits of non-medical prescribing like enhanced access to medicines. The report references several journals and books to support its findings.

Non-Medical
Prescribing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................2
Origin of nonmedical prescribing...........................................................................................2
Why nurses are more attracted to doing this course-benefit and drawback...........................3
What educational facilities are around achieving this course? what are the challenges?......4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Non-medical prescribing is considered by the health professionals who are not doctors but
their concern is related with any medicine prescribed for the health conditions in health
professionals. In regard of this, nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals including
radiographers who tends to prescribe are the skilled and trained specialists. They also lead to
undergone with effective training and also be competent to prescribe as the doctor. Non-medical
prescribing places the patients at the suitable centre of their care. In regard of this, the nurses and
pharmacist are also trained in order to explain and give treatment to their patients like what is the
medicine and how it should be taken (White, Cornish and Kerr, 2017). In regard of this, the
overall objective is to understand the experience and attitude of patient regarding their illness and
treatment which is effectively achieved by allowing time for the patients and also convince
patient to agree for the required medicine in order to use it more correctly. In regard of this, the
report leads to cover details regarding the origin of nom-medical prescribing, discuss that how
the nurses are attracted to do course benefits and drawbacks. It also depicts the educational
facilities to achieve their course and challenges which they face.
MAIN BODY
Origin of nonmedical prescribing
Non-medical prescribing was effectively proposed in 1986 in order to review the care
provide to their patients in their households by the district nurses and health visitors. In regard of
this, the nonmedical prescribers are the healthcare specialists who leads to attain an advanced
and updated qualification for prescription which is legally permitted to prescribed medicine,
appliances and dressing. In regard of this, the nonmedical prescribers of UK presently include
pharmacist, nurses and certain similar health professionals to whom they are registrants for their
professional controlling body (Kozhimannil and et. al., 2017). In regard of this, the report is
being suggested that their patients lead to access suitable treatment in order to enhance effective
care of patient that can be enhanced and effective resources are used if the community based

nurses are capable to prescribe things from the limited list of items like wound dressings and
ointments for nursing care.
In relation with this, the non-medical prescribing effectively resurfaced and also comes for
the new dimension to the culture of medication management. Furthermore, people also self-
medicate by the history for having the good place to start with the effective story of patent
medicines. In 1998, after the apparent growth and success of community nurses prescribe in
suitable manner and also has the effective evaluation of independent prescribing from the Nurse
Prescriber’s Formulary. By this, nurses are able to recommend the innovative Nurse Prescriber’s
Formulary and also undertake licensed pharmacy for their listed medicine and opted prescription
only medicines (Ali and et. al., 2017). However, within the voluntary partnership among the
responsible and self-governing prescriber and also the supplementary prescriber in order to
execute things among agreed patients specifically in clinical organisation plan with the
agreement of patient and also not in context of prescribing for the particular non-acute medical
condition or health essential impact enduring.
Away with this, at the international level, presently the pharmacist and nurses tends to give
suitable prescribing authority and the nurses in USA tends to obtain “prescriptive authority” in
order to qualify their postgraduate level as the progressive repetition registered nurses who are
specialised as the nurse practitioner (Zarzeka, Gotlib and Lourido, 2018). The pharmacists are
presently need to have effective patient oriented experience which is of minimum 3 years
undertaking the clinical experience in this field by which they are intend to give prescription.
The nonmedical prescribing programme leads to encompass minimum 26 days in order to taught
at the 12 extra days of applied experience which is recognised as the era of learning in practice.
Why nurses are more attracted to doing this course-benefit and drawback
Nursing is the profession in healthcare sector that leads to focus on having effective care of
individuals, families and overall communities that leads to maintain, attain and effectively
improve optimal fitness and quality of life. Nurses are diverse from the other health care
providers by having effective approach which is being provided by the healthcare providers to
have effective care of patient and suitable scope of practice. Nurses also leads to develop suitable
care plan, work effectively with therapists, patients other team members in order to put emphasis
on treating the illness to enhance to quality of life (Arthur and Bruera, 2019). In regard of this,
some of the benefits and drawbacks of nursing are mentioned as:

Benefits:
 Nurses tends to have high demand in market across the country as they are expecting as
registered nurse employment to grow around 15% among the years of 2016 to 2026
which is quite faster rate instead of average for all the occupations.
 In regard of this, hospitals tens to have large employers’ s nurses tends to choose
effective application of their skills for any sort of practice setting from airplanes to cruise
and military bases.
 Moreover, nurses tend to have high job flexibility as there are few jobs that have the
proper flexibility of nursing. They also lead to take time off for their work and also find
work fast to come back to their field.
Drawbacks:
 Nurses tends to face issues in back injuries and foot problems which is the common issue
in nursing profession specifically for those who leads to work in hospitals. As their care
givers need to spend lot of time on their feet and also have to lift and move patients on
the continuous basis (Laakso, 2017).
 The working hours of hospitals are quite long like 12 hours’ shifts and somehow also
shift to 15 hours in a day that leads to negatively impact their mental and physical health
factors. It also worth mentioning that nurses with job seniority tends to work more in
night, holidays and weekends.
 The profession of nursing includes lot of stress and pressure that comes with being a
nurse and does not get much downtime on their job that need lot of critical thinking that
leads to negatively impact their mental health which become difficult for them to deal
with patients and families.
What educational facilities are around achieving this course? what are the challenges?
It depicts the suitable changes in healthcare system and practice environments that need
equal profound changes in both education and nurses before and after they get their license. For
this, the basic goal of nursing education is to remain same as the nurses need to be prepared in
order to meet diverse patients considering the needs, functions and so on that undertake advance
science for having prominent benefits to patients and the suitable capacity of health professionals
in order to deliver safe quality patient care (Osborne and et. al., 2017). Despite from this, the
education of nursing leads to effectively develop its own reforms in tandem with suitable

education with each other and also offer prominent health profession education. It also tends to
undertake effective reforms by considering the need for the overall education of nursing to re-
examine the values of environmental health policy, nursing research, education, practice and
other services.
Challenges in the education of nursing
The education of nursing effectively includes suitable challenges with it in terms of aligning
with the prominent practice environment the majorly impact the overall knowledge and
competencies of nurses undertaking the health care providers (Mather and Maw, 2017).
Furthermore, the continuous curricular changes are the effective phenomenon in nursing
academia in terms of having suitable level of learning that leads to include frequent evolution of
the professional practice.
Along with this, Nursing is the suitable part of an integrated healthcare workforce that leads
to provide proof for the inter-professional healthcare training methods that can be quite powerful
in order to improve health factors for their patient health results and decrease healthcare
expenses with the help of scientific research proclaims that inter-disciplinary cooperation results
in several positive consequences including both acute and primary care settings (Kozhimannil
and et. al., 2017). Hence, the faculty of nursing leads to develop suitable challenges in terms of
quality education that relies on the well trained and competent faculty members. In this context,
the technological challenges also lead to occur at the time of pursuing education for nursing that
leads to impact their live and effective practices, management, education and research.
CONCLUSION
Therefore, from the above discussion, it is being analysed that the nonmedical prescribing is
the field of study that leads to enhance the convenience and speed of access to medicines also
have been prominently reported as the key benefit for the non-medical prescribing by the health
professionals and patients. It effectively impacts the non-medical prescribing that has been
reported by NMPs and other healthcare professionals in order to positively impact the
nonmedical prescribers. For this, the several factors that are being reported to impact the NMPs
prescribing practice with suitable confidence which has being highlighted for the specific
significance.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ali, M.M and et. al., 2017. Prescription drug monitoring programs, nonmedical use of
prescription drugs, and heroin use: Evidence from the National Survey of Drug Use and
Health. Addictive behaviors, 69, pp.65-77.
Arthur, J. and Bruera, E., 2019. Balancing opioid analgesia with the risk of nonmedical opioid
use in patients with cancer. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, 16(4), pp.213-226.
Kozhimannil, K.B and et. al., 2017. Non-medical opioid use and sources of opioids among
pregnant and non-pregnant reproductive-aged women. Drug and alcohol
dependence, 174, pp.201-208.
Laakso, L., 2017. Non-medical prescribing-implications for physiotherapy education in Australia
and New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Physiotherapy, 45(1), p.5.
Mather, L. and Maw, G., 2017. Risk management and pharmacovigilance in non-medical
prescribing decisions. Journal of Aesthetic Nursing, 6(7), pp.351-355.
Osborne, V and et. al., 2017. Non-medical opioid use in youth: Gender differences in risk factors
and prevalence. Addictive behaviors, 72, pp.114-119.
White, J.M., Cornish, F. and Kerr, S., 2017. Front‐line perspectives on ‘joined‐up’working
relationships: a qualitative study of social prescribing in the west of S cotland. Health &
social care in the community, 25(1), pp.194-203.
Zarzeka, A., Gotlib, J. and Lourido, B.P., 2018. NON-MEDICAL PRESCRIBING IN SPAIN.
OPINIONS OF NURSING AND PHYSIOTHERAPY STUDENTS. In INTED2018
Proceedings (pp. 7117-7121). IATED.