Anticipatory prescribing for end of life care in the community: a survey of community nurses in England

Anticipatory prescribing is increasingly common in the UK, yet little is known about nurses’ roles in the process. As part of a wider study to explore this, a postal survey of 575 community/district, nursing home and palliative care nurses was undertaken in two regions. Nurses report anticipatory pr...

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Main Authors: Wilson, Eleanor, Seymour, Jane
Format: Article
Published: RCN Publishing 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37952/
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author Wilson, Eleanor
Seymour, Jane
author_facet Wilson, Eleanor
Seymour, Jane
author_sort Wilson, Eleanor
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Anticipatory prescribing is increasingly common in the UK, yet little is known about nurses’ roles in the process. As part of a wider study to explore this, a postal survey of 575 community/district, nursing home and palliative care nurses was undertaken in two regions. Nurses report anticipatory prescriptions to be very common, and once in place they are normally used. Findings show that nurses report taking prominent roles throughout the anticipatory prescribing process and principal responsibility for administering and monitoring the medications. Many respondents recount good working relationships with GPs. However, some nurses report being challenged by: GPs who are reluctant to prescribe the medications, incorrectly written prescriptions, and difficulties in gaining access to the necessary medications. Qualitative comments indicated that being a nurse prescriber could enhance confidence to use anticipatory prescriptions. Importantly, nurses responding to the survey perceived that anticipatory prescriptions facilitated provision of good end of life care.
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spelling nottingham-379522020-05-04T18:15:17Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37952/ Anticipatory prescribing for end of life care in the community: a survey of community nurses in England Wilson, Eleanor Seymour, Jane Anticipatory prescribing is increasingly common in the UK, yet little is known about nurses’ roles in the process. As part of a wider study to explore this, a postal survey of 575 community/district, nursing home and palliative care nurses was undertaken in two regions. Nurses report anticipatory prescriptions to be very common, and once in place they are normally used. Findings show that nurses report taking prominent roles throughout the anticipatory prescribing process and principal responsibility for administering and monitoring the medications. Many respondents recount good working relationships with GPs. However, some nurses report being challenged by: GPs who are reluctant to prescribe the medications, incorrectly written prescriptions, and difficulties in gaining access to the necessary medications. Qualitative comments indicated that being a nurse prescriber could enhance confidence to use anticipatory prescriptions. Importantly, nurses responding to the survey perceived that anticipatory prescriptions facilitated provision of good end of life care. RCN Publishing 2016-10-27 Article PeerReviewed Wilson, Eleanor and Seymour, Jane (2016) Anticipatory prescribing for end of life care in the community: a survey of community nurses in England. Primary Health Care, 26 (9). pp. 22-27. ISSN 2047-900X Anticipatory Prescribing Nurses Roles End of Life Survey Medication http://journals.rcni.com/doi/abs/10.7748/phc.2016.e1151 doi:10.7748/phc.2016.e1151 doi:10.7748/phc.2016.e1151
spellingShingle Anticipatory Prescribing
Nurses Roles
End of Life
Survey
Medication
Wilson, Eleanor
Seymour, Jane
Anticipatory prescribing for end of life care in the community: a survey of community nurses in England
title Anticipatory prescribing for end of life care in the community: a survey of community nurses in England
title_full Anticipatory prescribing for end of life care in the community: a survey of community nurses in England
title_fullStr Anticipatory prescribing for end of life care in the community: a survey of community nurses in England
title_full_unstemmed Anticipatory prescribing for end of life care in the community: a survey of community nurses in England
title_short Anticipatory prescribing for end of life care in the community: a survey of community nurses in England
title_sort anticipatory prescribing for end of life care in the community: a survey of community nurses in england
topic Anticipatory Prescribing
Nurses Roles
End of Life
Survey
Medication
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37952/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37952/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37952/