Nurse practitioners have been given the mandate of authorizing drugs and prescribing medications following the challenges that are facing the delivery of healthcare. Examples of such problems are the decreasing number of medical providers, unavailability of adequate health care services in rural and underserved areas as well as the increasing specialization among the professionals. The professional practice issue of a nurse practitioner as a prescriber is that prescribing is done in different contexts of practice. Thus no regulations are governing the process, the practice is outdated, and there is lack of enough funds for the education of the nurses (Sabatino et al., 2017). As a result, painkillers end up being prescribed in most cases.
Nurse practitioners have been found to prescribe drugs with the aim of promoting pharmaceutical companies that sponsor their education without relying on sufficient evidence in their prescriptions. This is according to the survey conducted on a sample of nurse practitioners who were randomly selected from the American Academy of nurse practitioners which is the largest body of nurse practitioners in the United States. In conclusion, therefore, the role of a nurse practitioner as a prescriber needs to be regulated and seriously examined to ensure proper prescriptions are done.
References
Miller, E., Balmer, D., Hermann, M. N., Graham, M. G., & Charon, R. (2014). Sounding narrative medicine: studying students’ professional identity development at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.Academic medicine: journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges,89(2), 335.
Sabatino, J. A., Pruchnicki, M. C., Sevin, A. M., Barker, E., Green, C. G., & Porter, K. (2017). Improving prescribing practices: A pharmacist€led educational intervention for nurse practitioner students.Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners,29(5), 248-254.