The Expanding Role of Mental Health Nurse Prescribing (2010)

Mental Health Nurse Prescribing Dissertation – The profession of nursing is one that is always changing. With more and more focus on client centred care comes more responsibility for the qualified nursing staff. Many qualified nurses are now taking on roles that were previously conducted by doctors, with health-care assistants filling in the roles that in the past were carried out by registered nurses.

In 1986, it was suggested by the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) and the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing and Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC) that nurse prescribing would improve patient care and the National Health Services (NHS) resources could be used more effectively. Following these suggestions by the DHSS, its successor the Department of Health (DoH) commissioned an advisory group of health professional chaired by Dr June Crown, a former President of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine and Royal Colleges of Physicians, to report on the perceived impact nurse prescribing would have on the NHS.

The Crown report was published with recommendations from the advisory group that district nurses or health visitors should prescribe from a limited formulary from which the nurse prescribers could prescribe certain medication and dressings. Following the Crown reports recommendations, nurse prescribing in the United Kingdom was introduced in the primary care setting using a limited list of products following the Medicinal Products: Prescription by Nurses etc.

The Crown report was reviewed by Dr Jane Crown and a team of healthcare professional in 1999 with suggestions that the role of nurse prescribing should be extended further than the primary care setting by proposing that mental health nurses should be given the authority to prescribe. Supplementary Prescribing was introduced following the second Crown report allowing some mental health nurses to prescribe in partnership with a doctor, following diagnosis and according to an agreed Clinical Management Plan.

This dissertation will aim to review the literature on nurse prescribing and focus in on a key area so that changes in the management of nurse prescribing can be looked at in order for nurse prescribing to work and taken into the future. Despite the subject of mental health nurse prescribing being seen as a very important subject that involves patients, staff, legal and ethical issues, it is also considered quite controversial as only a limited amount of research has been carried out on the subject matter. The information for this work was obtained through electronic searching.


  • 10,000 words – 40 pages in length
  • Excellent use of literature
  • Good in depth analysis
  • Weill written throughout
  • Ideal for nursing and health students

1 – Introduction
The Expanding Role of Nursing
Nurse Prescribing and the United States of America
The Need for Nurse Prescribing in the United Kingdom
Literature Review – How will Nurse Prescribing work?
Reasons for the Delay
Summary

2 – The Second Crown Report
Early Opinions on Mental Health Nurse Prescribing
Updated Research
Summary

3 – Change Management
Introduction
What is Change?
The Role of the Change Agent
Resistance to Change
Approaches to Change
Models of Change Management
Summary

4 – What is to Change?
Lewin’s (1951) Model of Change Management Applied to Mental Health Nurse Prescribing
Summary

Recommendations

Conclusion

References

Mental Health Nurse Prescribing Dissertation
Mental Health Nurse Prescribing Dissertation

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