Prescribing Within a Team Context: One Mental Health Nurse’s Reflection on the Clinical Aspect of Non-Medical Prescribing Training

Abstract

Whilst undertaking the Independent and Supplementary Prescribing Course at the University of Sheffield I had the valuable experience of witnessing the prescribing of psychotropic medicines for service users' within a very well organised, competent and compassionate intensive home treatment team based in Rotherham South Yorkshire. This article is a reflective account using a case study that illuminated to me many of the issues involved in the decision-making toward the prescribing of drugs. The reflection also includes a commentary on some of the issues the prescribing nurse must be able work with if they are to competently and safely adopt prescriptive authority to their role.

Nurse prescribing in specialist mental health (Part 1): the views and experiences of practising and non‐practising nurse prescribers and service users

“…These findings support some of the concerns found in recent research such as apprehensions about independent nurse prescribing (Jones 2008), also highlighted in an individual case reflection by Hemingway (2008), insufficient access to doctors, and the lack of structure and integration of the competency at a local level (Courtenay & Carey 2008). Dobel‐ober et al .…”

“…Hence, their role as prescriber has obvious benefits in terms of decision making and side effects when engagement and rapport are good. Hemingway (2008) supports that there may be additional considerations in mental health prescribing, including seeing people in the home and engaging the family. He makes the point that nurse prescribing in mental health initially excluded working with acute illness; however, this is counter‐intuitive as the benefits of accessibility, choice and flexibility are especially important at this stage.…”

Prescribing by Mental Health Nurses: The UK Perspective

“…Resistance voiced by physicians in the United States to APRNs practicing with prescriptive authority has not been echoed in the United Kingdom in mental health. There has been acceptance of widening prescribing to MHNs, and some psychiatrists have welcomed the change (Hemingway, 2008; Jones, Bennett, et al.). The potential economic impact of APRN prescribing on doctors in the United States is not mirrored in the United Kingdom with its model of socialized health care.…”