Mental health nurses’ perceptions of nurse prescribing

Abstract

Although there would be benefits to clients and patients, further training, rigorous supervision and the co-operation of doctors will be required if mental health nurse prescribing is to yield the anticipated benefits.

Expanded Practice Roles for Community Mental Health Nurses in Australia: Confidence, Critical Factors for Preparedness, and Perceived Barriers

“…These reports of confidence contrast markedly with the findings of Nolan et al (2001) that 92% of the mental health nurses working in community settings felt that they were not ready to prescribe and would need further training. This difference is even more remarkable in that, as described previously, the participants in the Nolan et al study were mental health nurses with a self-declared interest in nurse prescribing whereas those in the present study were drawn from the general population of practising community mental health nurses in Victoria.…”

“…Although Nolan et al (2001) did not describe the instrument used in detail, the nature of the results reported suggests that the respondents were given an option to select a specific response that stated something to the effect of "I would not feel confident to prescribe without additional training." In the present study, the respondents were simply asked to indicate on a Likert scale ranging from "definitely not" to "definitely" whether they would feel confident to prescribe medication if legally permitted to do so.…”

“…Notably, almost all (95%) believed that extra educational preparation would be necessary. It is possible that if these two items relating to levels of education and experience had been linked in such a way that the respondents were asked to rate their confidence with or without extra educational preparation their answers may have been more consistent with those of Nolan et al (2001). This possibility is made more probable by the fact that some respondents also commented that their responses to the items in the confidence section of the questionnaire were predicated on having extra training and supervision.…”

“…For example, Nolan et al (2001) reported a descriptive study undertaken in the United Kingdom, designed to investigate mental health nurses' views about nurse prescribing. A survey was completed by 73 mental health nurses who were attending a conference on nurse prescribing.…”

Non-medical prescribing: the story so far

“…Some doctors had a negative view about independent prescribing (Cooper et al, 2008), but there is no clear evidence that this finding applies to the mental health field. When surveyed themselves, mental health nurses were positive about the prospects for improved access to medicines and prevention of relapse, but expressed anxiety about their knowledge and skills (Nolan, 2001), identifying needs for further training in practical therapeutics (Hemmingway, 2004).…”