Prescribing behaviors of primary care nurse practitioners.

The prescribing practices of 18 primary care nurse practitioners (NPs) with 1,683 patients over a six-month period were examined through a randomly selected audit of over 1,700 prescriptions. The results showed that NPs prescribed a very limited number of well known, relatively simple drugs to a young, female healthy population. The prescription/visit rate was 0.26. Most drugs were initiated for the first time rather than refilled. There was minimal physician consultation regarding drug use during the visit. The results provide evidence of the ability of nurse practitioners to prescribe drugs and should aid in the further legalization of this aspect of the primary care role.