2022, Volume 15, Issue 2, pp 298 – 304

The expansion of the role of nurse prescribing in intensive care units in the healthcare system of Iran: a qualitative content analysis

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Authors and Affiliations

Corresponding Author: Abbas Abbaszadeh, Department of Medical-surgical Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. E-mail: aabaszadeh@sbmu.ac.ir

Abstract

Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurses prescribe medication for patients in many countries. However, there is still no evidence on the legitimacy of nurse prescribing roles in the healthcare system of Iran. This qualitative study with 30 experts was conducted to explore the experiences regarding the expanding role of prescribing medication by the ICU nurses. Data were collected through 31 individual semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the conventional content analysis method by MAXQDA 10. One major theme, “applicability of prescribing medication by ICU nurses”, together with three sub-themes of “facilitators”, “potential risks of nurse prescribing” and “the professional pathway”, emerged. The use of successful global experiences, patient-oriented healthcare system policies, current culture and positive professional position of nurses, physician shortage, and high capacity of ICU nurses appeared as facilitators to perform the new role in our context. For the expansion of the new role, different professional pathways such as discussion with physicians and special groups with conflicts of interests, training qualified nurses in this area, and gradual development were proposed by the participants. The next step of the research is to prepare a set of standards for the prescription of medication by the ICU nurses in our context.

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About this article

PMC ID: 8999098
PubMed ID: 
DOI: 10.25122/jml-2021-0188

Article Publishing Date (print): 2 2022
Available Online: 

Journal information

ISSN Printing: 1844-122X
ISSN Online: 1844-3117
Journal Title: Journal of Medicine and Life

Copyright License: Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.


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