What is it about?
This study explores how confident non-medical prescribing students feel about prescribing medication and the factors that either support or hinder this confidence. As more healthcare professionals like nurses and pharmacists are taking on prescribing roles traditionally held by doctors, it’s important to understand what helps or limits their confidence. The study involved specialist practice nursing students who shared their experiences of prescribing training. Results showed that while students generally felt supported by their peers and university teams, they encountered challenges like limited access to supervisors and varied quality of hands-on prescribing practice. This study highlights the need for further improvements in training and supervision to ensure new prescribers feel well-prepared, especially as healthcare demands continue to grow.
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Why is it important?
This research is particularly important because it addresses a growing need within healthcare: expanding the role of non-medical prescribers, such as nurses and pharmacists, who are increasingly expected to prescribe medications to improve patient care access and reduce wait times. As healthcare systems face workforce shortages and increased patient demand, the ability of these professionals to prescribe confidently and effectively becomes crucial. What makes this study unique and timely is its focus on the real-world experiences of students in prescribing programmes, providing insights into the factors that directly impact their confidence and readiness to prescribe independently. This work could drive improvements in training and support structures for future prescribers, which in turn enhances patient safety and outcomes. Additionally, as non-medical prescribing roles expand, this research helps fill a gap in understanding what students need to succeed, ensuring that training programs keep pace with healthcare demands.
Perspectives
As the lead for the Independent Prescribing programme for nurses, midwives, and allied health professionals, I have a deep personal commitment to supporting our students as they develop confidence in prescribing. This study holds particular relevance for me because it brings to light the importance balance between theoretical knowledge and practical, real-world experience in enabling that confidence. I have seen first-hand how a supportive environment with access to experienced clinicians can make a significant difference in students’ readiness to prescribe, as well as the challenges when these elements are lacking. From my perspective, this research not only validates much of what we observe in our programme but also emphasises the need to continuously adapt our approach to meet the diverse needs of our students. This study’s findings on the variability of supervised experiences and the limitations some students face in accessing high-quality prescribing practice highlight areas where we, as educators and programme leaders, can focus our efforts. By addressing these challenges, we can better prepare our students, ensuring they feel empowered and supported to make safe, informed prescribing decisions in their future practice.
Andrew Timlett
University of Brighton
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Assessing students' confidence in prescribing: contributing facilitators and constraints, British Journal of Community Nursing, November 2024, Mark Allen Group,
DOI: 10.12968/bjcn.2024.0056.
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