Evaluation of Physiotherapist and Podiatrist Independent Prescribing
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluation of physiotherapist and podiatrist independent prescribing, mixing of medicines and prescribing of controlled drugs.
IRAS ID
154795
Contact name
Nicola Carey
Contact email
Research summary
Over 21,000 nurses and 1,950 pharmacists are qualified as independent prescribers (IP). As doctors do, they assess patients, make a diagnosis and decide treatment plans. Legally these healthcare professionals can prescribe any licensed or unlicensed medicine; professionally they must stick to areas they know best.
Several hundred more physiotherapists and podiatrists can only write prescriptions as supplementary prescribers. Here they work with the patient’s doctor according to an agreed plan. Both nurse and pharmacist IPs may choose to use this route in some situations.
A recent change to prescribing powers of physiotherapists and podiatrists means they will soon be able to prescribe independently. This development should give people greater choice, easier access to medicines, improve quality of care and maximise use of health professionals’ skills.
In order to understand the effect of this change on the effectiveness and quality of care provided by physiotherapists and podiatrists IPs, it is necessary to explore these current changes.
The study will be conducted in three phases. Phase 1 will be a literature review. Phase 2 will be a survey to physiotherapist and podiatrist independent prescribers. Phase 3 will be case studies of different hospital or community based clinics in England.
In Phase 3 we will compare services provided by physiotherapists and podiatrists who are qualified to IP to those who are not qualified to prescribe. This will help us determine whether there are any differences in the quality of care or cost of services. We will ask PPs (Physiotherapists and Podiatrists) their views, what training they have had, what makes their job difficult and get views of other professionals working in the same setting. Patients will also be asked what they think.
The study will help determine the effectiveness and quality of physiotherapist and podiatrist IPs and inform decisions about IP training for other healthcare professionals.REC name
London - Surrey Borders Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/1641
Date of REC Opinion
23 Sep 2014
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion