Prescriptive Authority for Nurses: The Canadian Perspective

Authors

Cheryl Forchuk, University of Western OntarioFollow
Rosemary Kohr, London Health Sciences Centre, London, Canada

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-2009

Journal

Perspectives in Psychiatric Care

Volume

45

Issue

1

First Page

3

Last Page

8

Abstract

PURPOSE. This study aims to describe the role of prescriptive authority for nurses within Canada.

CONCLUSIONS. Prescriptive authority for Canadian nurses is linked to the development of advanced practice nursing generally and nurse practitioners specifically. Recent legislative changes allow nurse practitioners to function more independently regardless of the availability of medical practitioners. The smaller population results in less legislative variety for specific nurse practitioner specialty areas. Facilitators and barriers to implementing effective prescriptive authority remain as challenges and mirror findings from other literature.

Notes

Published in: Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, Volume 45 Issue 1, Pages 3 - 8. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-6163.2009.00194.x