Prescribing behaviors of primary care nurse practitioners.

Abstract

The prescribing practices of 18 primary care nurse practitioners (NP) with 1683 patiens over a 6 mo. period were examined through a randomly selected audit of over 1700 prescriptions. NP prescribed a very limited number of well known, relatively simple drugs to a young, female healthy population. The prescription/visit rate was 0.26. Most durgs were initiated for the 1st time rather than refilled. There was minimal physician consultation regarding drug use during the visit. The results provide evidence of the ability of nurse practitioners to prescribe drugs and should aid in the further legalization of this aspect of the primary care role.