Prescribing Drugs

What type of drug should you prescribe based on your patient’s diagnosis? How much of the drug should the patient receive? How often should the drug be administered? When should the drug not be prescribed? Are there individual patient factors that could create complications when taking the drug? Should you be prescribing drugs to thispatient?

These are some of the questions you might consider when selecting a treatment plan for a patient. As an advanced practice nurse prescribing drugs, you are held accountable for people’s lives on a daily basis. Patients and their families will often place trust in you because of your position. With this trust comes power and responsibility, as well as an ethical and legal obligation to “do no harm.” It is important that you are aware of current professional, legal, and ethical standards for advanced practice nurses with prescriptive authority. In this paper, you explore ethical and legal implications of the following scenario and consider how to appropriately respond.

Scenario:

You see another nurse practitioner writing a prescription for her husband who is not a patient of the nurse practitioner. The prescription is for a narcotic. You can’t decide whether or not to report the incident.

To prepare:

· Review  the following:

·

Arcangelo, V. P., Peterson, A. M., Wilbur, V., & Reinhold, J. A. (Eds.). (2017). Pharmacotherapeutics for advanced practice: A practical approach (4th ed.). Ambler, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

• Chapter 1, “Issues for the Practitioner in Drug      Therapy” (pp. 3–14)
       This chapter introduces issues relating to drug therapy such as adverse      drug events and medication adherence. It also explores drug safety, the      practitioner’s role and responsibilities in prescribing, and prescription      writing.
• Chapter 59, “The Economics of Pharmacotherapeutics”      (pp. 1009-1018)
       This chapter analyzes the costs of drug therapy to health care systems and      society and explores practice guideline compliance and current issues in      medical care.