Non-Medical Prescribing in three primary care settings
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Non-Medical Prescribing in community pharmacy, primary care and mental health services in North West England
IRAS ID
224180
Contact name
C E L Thomas
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 29 days
Research summary
Non-medical healthcare professionals, such as nurses and pharmacists, can safely prescribe medicines for patients. In the North West of England, the number of non-medical prescribers in community pharmacy, GP surgeries and in mental health is low compared to those working in hospitals. To remedy this, Health Education England North West (HEENW) provided funding to increase the number of non-medical prescribers working in community pharmacies, primary care (GP practices) and mental health settings. This funding enabled pharmacists and nurses to complete a non-medical prescribing course at one of eight North West higher education institutions.
HEENW have commissioned staff at the University of Manchester (see above) to undertake a study to look at what the impact of this funding has been on the numbers of non-medical prescribers working in community pharmacy, primary care (General Practice) or mental health services. The study will investigate this in different ways. We plan to gather information about the number of pharmacists and nurses who have applied to study under the funding described above, including information about how many registered for the course and how many passed or failed the course. We will ask all of the nurses and pharmacists who qualified as non-medical prescribers as part of the scheme to complete a questionnaire; this will ask questions about where they are working, if they are using their prescribing skills and, if so, how they are using them. We will also ask the non-medical prescribers to hand out a questionnaire to a manager and a colleague (who is a prescriber, possibly a doctor) to find out their views on how the non-medial prescriber has contributed to patient care. Last but not least, the non-medical prescriber will also be asked to hand out a questionnaire to five consecutive patients they see as part of their practice. This questionnaire will include questions about the patients’ experience of, and satisfaction with, the care provided by their non-medical prescriber.
REC name
Wales REC 6
REC reference
17/WA/0226
Date of REC Opinion
7 Jul 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion