A comparative case study of prescribing and non-prescribing physiotherapists and podiatrists

Abstract Background Increasing numbers of nurses, pharmacists and allied health professionals across the world have prescribing rights for medicines: over 90,000 of the eligible United Kingdom workforce are qualified as non-doctor prescribers. In order to inform future developments, it is important to understand the benefits and impact of prescribing by allied health professionals including physiotherapists and podiatrists.Aim: to compare outcomes of physiotherapist and podiatrist Independent Prescriber (PP- IP) patients with those of physiotherapist and podiatrist non-prescribers (PP-NPs). Outcome measures included patient satisfaction, ease of access to services, quality of life and cost implications.Design: a mixed method comparative case study Methods: Using mixed methods of data collection, outcomes were compared between 7 sites where care was provided from a PP-IP (3 podiatrist and 4 physiotherapist IPs) and 7 sites from a PP-NP (3 podiatrist and 4 physiotherapist NPs). Patients were followed up for 2 months (2015-2016). Results: 489 patients were recruited: n=243 IP sites, and n=246 NP sites. Independent prescribing was found to be highly acceptable, and equivalent in terms of quality of life (p>0.05) and patient satisfaction (p≤0.05) compared to care provided by NPs. PP-IP care delivery was found to be more resource intensive than NP-PP, with longer consultation duration for IPs (around 6.5 mins), and a higher proportion of physiotherapy patients discussed with medical colleagues (around 9.5 minutes). ConclusionThis study provides new knowledge that PP-IPs provide high levels of care. PP-IP care delivery was found to be more resource intensive. Further research is required to explore cost effectiveness. A more focussed exploration within each profession using targeted outcome measures would enable a more robust comparison, inform future developments around the world and help ensure non-doctor prescribing is recognised as an effective way to alleviate shortfalls in the global workforce..

Medienart:

Preprint

Erscheinungsjahr:

2022

Erschienen:

2022

Enthalten in:

ResearchSquare.com - (2022) vom: 29. Juli Zur Gesamtaufnahme - year:2022

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Carey, Nicola [VerfasserIn]
Edwards, Judith [VerfasserIn]
Otter, Simon [VerfasserIn]
Gage, Heather [VerfasserIn]
Williams, Peter [VerfasserIn]
Courtenay, Molly [VerfasserIn]
Moore, Ann [VerfasserIn]
Stenner, Karen [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext [lizenzpflichtig]
Volltext [kostenfrei]

Themen:

570
Biology

doi:

10.21203/rs.3.rs-30501/v2

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

XRA034716912