Inter- and intra-professional perspectives on non-medical prescribing in an NHS trust

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The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7420 p394-398
30 September 2006

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Original papers

Inter- and intra-professional perspectives on non-medical prescribing in an NHS trust

By Paul Buckley, Janet Grime and Alison Blenkinsopp

Paul Buckley, MSc, BPharm, is clinical pharmacy services manager at Mid Cheshire NHS Trust. Janet Grime is research fellow and Alison Blenkinsopp, PhD, FRPharmS, is professor of the practice of pharmacy at the Department of Medicines Management, Keele University.

Correspondence to:
Paul Buckley, Pharmacy Department, Leighton Hospital, Middlewich Road, Crewe, Cheshire CW2 4QJ
e-mail Paul.Buckley@mcht.nhs.uk

Abstract

Aim
To investigate the factors that will enable or inhibit the implementation of non-medical prescribing.

Design
Qualitative, semi-structured interview based study.

Subjects and setting
A purposive sample of 15 stakeholders in one NHS trust in the West Midlands.

Results
All stakeholders broadly supported the introduction of non-medical prescribing within the trust although medical staff had reservations and thought it should operate within controlled protocols and disagreed with the concept of independent prescribing. Nurses were perceived as benefiting from close patient contact in relation to prescribing but disadvantaged through having insufficient pharmacological knowledge. Pharmacists were seen by doctors and nurses as being experts in drug therapy but lacking diagnostic skills and knowledge of patients.

Conclusion
The study has identified that inter- and intra-professional relationships will be a key factor in the implementation of non-medical prescribing within the trust. The concept of “knowing the patient” is not one that has been explored in any depth in the pharmacy research or practice literature to date but has emerged here here as a key finding.

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