The “Art” of Writing the RX

New Nurse Practitioner’s today are thrust into fast paced practice environments that often fail to continue to mentor them on how to not only recognize and treat disease conditions and problems, but that forget to teach or instruct them on safe prescribing practices, and the basics of appropriate assessment and documentation in the medical record to support their prescribing practices and decisions.  Nurse Practitioner Education Programs will  teach a student how to manage conditions such as depression in a patient or recognize chronic pain and what medications are effective for pain relief, but neglect to educate them to the legalities of actual prescription writing and the ”art” of safe practice around prescribing.   Drug Enforcement Agency Regulators, along with varying state regulatory agencies often end up with new nurse practitioners at odds with what their legal obligations and responsibilities are to their patients compared to Federal and State governing agencies that monitor and regulate prescribing practice require. Too often professional journals and Board of Nursing or Board of Medicine disciplinary reports document cases of where nurse practitioners have failed to follow legal practice, and entangled themselves into legal matters that can quickly tarnish or end a career as a nurse practitioner. According to Buppert (2009), nurse practitioners should not only be familiar with the Drug Enforcement Agency’s outline of recurrent concomitance behaviors for providers but read and understand their individual state laws on prescribing. Nurse Practitioner Program Curriculum needs to include education on safe prescribing practices and discussions on legal requirements in relationship to prescribing medications. Additionally new Nurse Practitioners need to be aware of what assessment data should be included in the medical record to support their treatment plan.

     In order to better prepare students in safe prescription writing practices we have developed online modules for students to practice and develop the “art” of prescription writing. Upon completion of these modules students will be able to demonstrate adequate knowledge and skill in prescription writing and improved documentation skills to support clinical decision making.