Abstract
Nurses, pharmacists or other health professionals in England are now able to prescribe “prescription only medicines” (POMs). This prescribing initiative has been extended to controlled drugs. Nurse prescribing has advantages for nurses and patients, including enhanced career development opportunities, nurse led-services and better quality of patient care. Future prescribing directions for addiction nurses would include prescribing for minor injuries, pain, nutritional supplements, antibiotics, emergency contraceptives, medications for detoxifications and psychotropic substances. Nurse prescribing, such as methadone for opiate dependence would significantly reduce the waiting time for service-users to gain access to appropriate services. However, there are issues of concerns such as the relationship between nurse prescribers and non-prescribers, and the relationship between nurse prescribers and medical supervisors, clinical supervision and ongoing professional support for nurse prescribers. This paper examines some perspectives on aspects of nurse prescribing with reference to addiction nursing in the UK, with selected literature reviews on nurse prescribing.