Nurse Prescribing

Nurse Prescribing: patient, legal, ethical, professional and policy perspectives

Name of Client

Name of Institute

Nurse prescription has been discussed in the community of nursing practice since many years, but the reality of nursing practice came into existence only after the review of community nursing led by Cumberledge. The advisory group provided nurses with a legal framework of prescription, both legally and ethically. The act enables all registered nurses to make prescriptions, after getting training with a district nursing or having health visiting qualification. The nurses, in order to gain status of prescribers, have to complete a specific program of preparation at a minimum level, level three.

The nurses can make initial prescriptions to the patients, now that they have the legal status. The case under study is of an asthmatic patient, who works as a book keeper and is fifty-one years old.

Sarah has been asthmatic since childhood, as she has a weak chest and had even more breathing issues than she has today. With the passage of time, the symptoms became mellow but did not go away completely. As she became a teenager, the symptoms came down to fewer attacks after occasional colds.

Panting and breathlessness is mainly caused by exercise or other demanding tasks, but Sarah's inactive and desk bound lifestyle allowed her to avoid all these issues. The main reason behind opting for the librarian's job is the same—her asthma issue that would not have allowed her to g for any other profession requiring hard work and more repeated movements.

Despite taking all these precautions, the symptoms and rate of attacks has gone up in past five years, not getting under control by the use of regular inhaled steroids. She has started getting more frequent symptoms and now wakes up during night sleep at least once in every eight days.

The condition worsened when Sarah's mother (who happens to live with her) fell and injured herself. As a result of her injury, Sarah took the pet dog for a walk, which triggered her asthma once again. The dog enjoys the exercise, but Sarah gets a whole day with asthma symptoms after this morning walk. She used her reliever inhaler more than the usual dose and finally the need to visit the asthma clinic aroused.

When Sarah pays a visit to the clinic, I would optimize Rx first and then consider spirometry if symptoms persist. Abnormal spiromerty would not give much information regarding irreversible components, especially when she is symptomatic, as nurses have permission to make prescription independently. (DoH, 2006, Pp: 18)

Sarah is exceptionally organized person and asks for prescription for her inhaled steroids at regular intervals, often every month. She also takes proper precautions and maintains a peak flow chart even when there are no issues and symptoms. Her flow chart keeps a record of all her inhaled doses as well s all her symptoms, as she ticks them off each and every day.

Moreover, Sarah takes care of hygiene as well to avoid any issue and washed her MDI with spaces properly. Regular cleaning ...