OBJECTIVE To examine antibiotic prescribing in nursing homes and determine to what degree the prescribing was in accordance with the national guidelines for antibiotic prescribing. DESIGN Retrospective examination of patients' records who were prescribed antibiotics in the period 1 March 2007 to 28 February 2008. SETTING AND PATIENTS Patients residing in the nursing homes of Arendal, Norway...

AIMS To assess changes in the prescribing practices and views about nurse prescribing of Registered Nurses in the Netherlands between 2006 and 2012. BACKGROUND Considering the developments that took place in the Netherlands between 2006 and 2012, such as increased opportunities for nurse prescribing education and stricter control of nurses' prescribing practices, this study examines the exten...

OBJECTIVES To investigate whether and how structured feedback sessions can increase rates of appropriate antimicrobial prescribing by junior doctors. METHODS This was a mixed-methods study, with a conceptual orientation towards complexity and systems thinking. Fourteen junior doctors, in their first year of training, were randomized to intervention (feedback) and 21 to control (routine practi...

BACKGROUND Characteristics of high and low prescribers of antibiotics in German primary care were analysed using population data. We aimed to evaluate differences in prescribing rates and factors being associated with high prescribing, and whether high prescribers made the diagnosis of perceived bacterial infections more often. METHODS Routine data were provided by the Bavarian Association of...

Analgesia prescribing is fundamental to a patient's journey, affecting length of stay and patient experience. Laminated prompts are used throughout the NHS Foundation Trust to aid doctors prescribing. A baseline questionnaire was carried out to gather doctors' prescribing habits and current ability to convert opioids to their morphine equivalent. Ninety three percent of doctors said they were m...

BACKGROUND To support antibiotic prescribing for both hospital and community-based health professionals working in remote North Western Australia, a multidisciplinary Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) Committee was established in 2013. This Committee is usually focused on hospital-based prescribing. A troubling increase in sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim resistance in Staphylococcus aureus antibiog...

BACKGROUND Since 1997, UK guidance has advocated limiting antibiotic prescribing for otitis media. It is not known whether this has influenced general practitioner prescribing practice. Aims and objectives To investigate the trends in diagnoses and antibiotic prescribing for otitis media in children in relation to guidance. METHODS We used the General Practice Research Database to conduct tim...

Stopping prescriptions for medicines that patients no longer need is an important part of good prescribing practice. Yet, unlike the volumes of scientific evidence on starting medications, research to guide best practice prescribing cessation is rare. This would not be a concern if we could be confident that prescribing is routinely ceased when this is appropriate. There are reasons to believe ...

OBJECTIVE To examine doctors' perceptions and attitudes to prescribing within the Authority Prescribing System (APS). DESIGN AND SETTING Questionnaire survey of Australian doctors' responses to a number of statements and factorial vignettes, conducted between 1 May and 30 June 2001. PARTICIPANTS A national random sample of 1200 doctors, stratified according to specialist/generalist, rural/u...

Vægter, K. 2013. Promoting Rational Drug Prescribing in General Practice. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 858. 64 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 978-91-554-8582-5. Aims: To introduce the concepts “quality assurance”, “rational drug prescribing” and “outreach visits” in general practice in Storstrøm County, Denmark and stud...