ABSTRACT
This chapter examines two contemporary issues related to medicines management for nurses: nurse prescribing and medication errors. Implementing the government's drive for the modernisation and improvement of the National Health Service (NHS) has utilised nurse's skills and exploited the 24 hours/7 days a week/365 days a year availability of nurses. Although the administration of medicines is a key skill for many nurses, it is not the only skill inherent in medicines management for nurses. In the UK, Marshall and Warren were reporting the results of their experiments in Australia that led to the discovery of Helicobacter pylori; a report was produced in the UK investigating the role of the district nurse. Nurse prescribing is inherent in the Modernising Medicine Management initiative introduced by the Audit Commission which highlighted an increasing number of medication errors and adverse reactions and the low rate of compliance of many patients with NHS prescriptions.
