Increased Accessibility to Primary Healthcare Due to Nurse Prescribing of Medicines

Dorota Kilańska, Anna Lipert, Marika Guzek, Per Engelseth, Michał Marczak, Kamila Sienkiewicz and Remigiusz Kozłowski
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Dorota Kilańska: Department of Coordinated Care, Medical University of Lodz, 90-131 Lodz, Poland
Anna Lipert: Department of Sports Medicine, Medical University of Lodz, 92-213 Lodz, Poland
Marika Guzek: Medical and Diagnostic Center (MCM), 08-110 Siedlce, Poland
Per Engelseth: Narvik Campus, Tromsø School of Business and Economics, The Arctic University of Norway, 8505 Narvik, Norway
Michał Marczak: Department of Management and Logistics in Healthcare, Medical University of Lodz, 90-131 Lodz, Poland
Kamila Sienkiewicz: Department of Management and Logistics in Healthcare, Medical University of Lodz, 90-131 Lodz, Poland
Remigiusz Kozłowski: Center of Security Technologies in Logistics, Faculty of Management, University of Lodz, 90-237 Lodz, Poland

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 19, issue 1, 1-22

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: nurse prescribing; nonmedical prescribing; access to health services; task shifting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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