Patients' perspectives on prescribing by nurses in general practice

Abstract

Nurse prescribing was introduced in part to improve Patients' access to medicines in general practice. Previous studies have found that patients were satisfied with nurse prescribing on the basis of several criteria including accessibility, timeliness, convenience and the quality of the relationship with the nurse. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore Patients' attitudes to and experiences of nurse prescribing in inner-city general practices with different ethnic populations. Methods: Nurse prescribers from four Birmingham practices recruited patients to the study and 15 patients agreed to take part. Semi-structured interviews were conducted by the researcher between November and December 2007. Findings: Participants responded positively: 73% found nurse prescribing to be convenient; 86% felt they had a good relationship with the nurse. Conclusions: The results were in line with the findings of previous studies, and Patients' ethnic background did not appear to have an effect on their experiences of or attitudes to nurse prescribing.