The necessity and possibility of implementation of nurse prescribing in China: An international perspective

Abstract

Background The number of countries where nurses are legally permitted to prescribe has grown rapidly due to a variety of external and internal forces. Despite its international popularity, nurse prescribing has not yet been implemented in China widely. Objective The intent of this paper is to review the current international literature regarding nurse prescribing so as to explore the necessity and possibility of implementation of nurse prescribing in China and classify the research gap. Methods Eight electronic databases including Embase, SpringerLink, EBSCO, CINAHL, Medline, Wiley, Science Direct, CochraneLibrary were electronically searched to identify related peer-review articles published in the English language only from 2007 to 2017. Relative references found from the identified studies were traced back to ensure that potentially eligible articles were included. Results Thirty-three publications which met the inclusion criteria were included in this literature review. The literature shows that not only could nurse prescribing provide quicker service, improvements in quality, but also could make better utilization of the nurses' professional skills and increase nurses' autonomy. Moreover, the barriers of nurse prescribing are explored to identify the factors that may facilitate the success of its implementation. Conclusion The review advises that nurses' views towards nurse prescribing have played a significant role in the success of nurse prescribing. While no literature regarding Chinese nurses' attitudes towards nurse prescribing could be identified, it is imperative to examine their attitudes on it. This would help Chinese healthcare policymakers ascertain the necessity of the introduction of nurse prescribing and provide them with valuable information for service planning.

Attitudes and beliefs towards implementation of nurse prescribing among general nurses and nurse specialists in China: A cross‐sectional survey study

“…It is worth mentioning that the variety of nurse specialists influenced their attitudes and beliefs on nurse prescribing, and we found acertain variety of nurse specialists, such as nurse specialists in diabetes, wound, emergency, geriatric and hospice specialties, had higher willingness in nurse prescribing than other specialties (see Table 4 ). This is in agreement with the results of our earlier paper (Ling et al., 2017 ), in which we found that nursing prescribing mainly targets patients with chronic diseases who are in stable condition and need long‐term medication, terminally ill patients who need palliative care, and patients in an emergency state who need first aid. Our findings reveal that the variety of nurse specialists impacts the degree of their intentions on nurse prescribing.…”

“…The scale is constructed mainly by four steps as follows. Firstly, an item pool with 38 items was constructed by literature review (Ling, et al, 2017; seven items), group discussion (16 items) and referring to a questionnaire developed by Patel et al (2009;15 items). Secondly, ten nurse specialists who were from ICU (n = 2), ER (n = 2), Orthopedics Dept.…”

Iranian nurses’ attitudes towards the necessity and barriers to developing nurse prescribing roles

“…Ling et al (2018) conducted a systematic review of the available literature and determined the necessity of development and the possibility of implementing the nurse prescribing role in China. Moreover, the results of these researches indicated the positive attitudes of the nurses regarding nurse prescribing [ 23 ]. The results of LockWood et al (2008) on the attitude of specialist clinical nurses in Ireland indicated similar results.…”

“…Thus, the nurses’ preparedness is vital to prescription, and their eligibility is among the critical factors for the successful implementation of nursing prescribing. When deciding on licensing the nurses to prescribe medications, academic qualifications and work experience should be accurately considered [ 23 ]. The most frequently mentioned barriers regarding the attitudes towards the nurse prescribing in ICU consisted of lack of legitimacy, the opposition of physicians, lack of support by nursing managers, lack of education and knowledge, fear from the legal consequences, lack of clinical experience, not considering rewards and benefits, and lack of financial support.…”

A comparison between independent nurse prescribing and patient group directions in the safety and appropriateness of medication provision in United Kingdom sexual health services: A mixed methods study

“…Internationally, independent nurse prescribing has been introduced in a variety of countries including Australia, Canada, Ireland, Spain, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States of America (Kroezen et al, 2011;Gielen et al, 2014), Israel and Poland. China are also considering the adoption of this role by nurses (Ling et al, 2018). The freedom to prescribe independently varies considerably between countries; "non-medical prescribing" can therefore range internationally from access to a limited formulary to a wide and flexible authority (Gielen et al, 2014).…”