Nurse Prescribing in Mental Health Care: What can the USA teach us?

Abstract

SummaryNurse Prescribing in mental health care is now a reality. As part of a long-term plan to introduce the prescribing role for mental health nurses in the local area, Doncaster and South Humber Health Care Trust and the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Sheffield conducted a study tour of centres well established in the clinical practice and educational preparation for prescriptive authority for nurses. The findings from the visit are explored, for example: a) how is a competence in prescribing achieved by nurse, b) what is the educational delivery needed to prepare the potential prescriber? Insights are offered based on the provision of care by nurse prescribers in the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut that we visited. These are then discussed in the context of the future development of this role, which is now being introduced as an innovation aimed at meeting the mental health care needs of patients in the UK.