Nurse practitioner provision of patient education related to medicine

Objective: To describe the perceptions of Australian NPs and NP candidates (student NP and NPs in transitional roles but not yet authorised) in regards to their confidence and practice in providing medicine information to patients/clients. Design: An electronic survey related to prescribing practices. Setting: The survey was open to all Australian NPs (n=250 at time of survey) and NP candidates. Subjects: The survey was completed by 68 NPs and 64 NP candidates (student NP and NPs in transitional roles but not yet authorised) across Australia. Main outcome measures: Survey findings. Results: Sixty seven percent of NPs and 54% of NP candidates identified feeling very confident in providing their clients with education about medicines. Of the NP respondents 78% identified they generally do inform patients of the active ingredient of medications and 60% of NP respondents indicated they provide or discuss CMI leaflets with their patients. Conclusion: The results suggested that NPs and NP candidates are providing some of their clients with medicine information and using CMI leaflets in some prescribing consultations. Although confidence in the area of provision of education to patients related to medicines is high this may be incongruent with actual concordance supporting nursing behavior. Person centered patient education is central to the principles of building concordance. The incongruities between confidence in the provision of medication education to patients and self reported concordance building NP prescribing behavior needs to be a focus of critical reflection on NP prescribing practice.