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Appropriateness of Geriatric Prescribing Decisions Made by Nurse Practitioners and Physicians
Author(s) -
Mahoney Diane Feeney
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
image: the journal of nursing scholarship
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.009
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1547-5069
pISSN - 0743-5150
DOI - 10.1111/j.1547-5069.1994.tb00292.x
Subject(s) - legislation , medical prescription , nurse practitioners , nursing , medicine , family medicine , state (computer science) , political science , health care , law , algorithm , computer science
Legislators' concerns about the ability of nurse practitioners (NPs) to appropriately prescribe medications underlie the regulatory policies governing prescribing in the United States. As a result, state legislation varies concerning whether prescriptive authority is granted to NPs. The prescribing decisions of NPs and physicians were compared using three standardized geriatric case vignettes. NPs scored higher on an index of appropriateness than physicians a difference that remained whether or not the nurse had regulatory support to prescribe. Recommendations are made for more equitable state prescription policies .