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Nurse–patient relationships: the context of nurse prescribing
Author(s) -
Karen Luker,
Lynn Austin,
Cath Hogg,
Brian Ferguson,
Kirsteen Smith
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of advanced nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.948
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1365-2648
pISSN - 0309-2402
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2648.1998.00788.x
Subject(s) - nursing , district nurse , context (archaeology) , medicine , focus group , qualitative research , medline , nurse practitioners , health professionals , surgical nursing , health care , family medicine , nurse education , primary nursing , paleontology , social science , business , marketing , sociology , political science , law , economics , biology , economic growth
Nurse prescribing was initiated in the United Kingdom in October 1994 in eight demonstration sites. The evaluation of this extension to the community nurses’ role explored both economic and qualitative benefits to patients, carers, nurses and other health care professionals. In this paper the impact of nurse prescribing on patients is explored. Benefits experienced by patients are described along with the difficulties encountered. The patients’ views regarding nurses as prescribers are also explored. Data were collected by means of interviews with patients/carers, the focus of which was to evaluate changes associated with nurse prescribing. Patients raised a number of issues associated with their relationship with nurses. Patients valued nurses for both their accessibility and approachability, which led them to discuss health issues which would not otherwise have been brought to the attention of the general practitioner. The arguments which support the incorporation of these qualities into an expanded nursing role are presented.