Increased accessibility to primary health care due to nurse prescribing of medicines
Permanent lenke
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/24019Dato
2021-12-28Type
Journal articleTidsskriftartikkel
Peer reviewed
Forfatter
Kilanska, Dorota; Lipert, Anna; Guzek, Marika; Engelseth, Per; Marczak, Michal; Sienkiewicz, Kamila; Kozlowski, RemiguiszSammendrag
Since January 2016, nurses and midwives in Poland have had the right, with some restrictions, to prescribe medicines. Consequently, Polish patients received the same opportunity
as in other countries worldwide: easier access to certain health services, i.e., medical prescribing.
The aim of this study was to assess the impact of structural changes which increased the nurses’
competences on the accessibility to prescription visits for patients receiving primary healthcare on
the example of Medical and Diagnostic Centre (MDC), and to discuss the general trend of legal
changes in nursing profession regulations. We performed a detailed analysis of the data on the MDC
patient population in Siedlce who received at least one prescription written by a general practitioner
and/or a nurse/midwife in the years 2017–2019.The largest number of prescription visits made
by nurses concerned patients aged 50–70 years, as this age range includes the largest number of
patients with chronic diseases who need continued pharmacological treatment originally administered by doctors. An increasing tendency for prescription visits made by nurses was recorded, with
a simultaneous downward trend in the same type of visits undertaken by doctors at MDC. Nurses’
involvement in prescribing medications as a continued pharmacotherapy during holiday seasons
results in patients having continuous access to medication. An upward trend was also observed
in the number of medications prescribed by nurses per patient. Structural changes in the legal
regulations of the nursing profession improve patients’ access to prescription visits under primary
healthcare. Further research is recommended to evaluate the dynamics of these trends and the impact
of newly introduced nursing competences on the accessibility of prescription visits for patients.
Forlag
MDPISitering
Kilanska, Lipert, Guzek, Engelseth, Marczak, Sienkiewicz, Kozlowski. Increased accessibility to primary health care due to nurse prescribing of medicines. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH). 2021;19(1)Metadata
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Copyright 2021 The Author(s)