Maintaining and developing prescribing practice

The need for health visitors to maintain and develop their prescribing practice remains crucial if we are going to support the delivery of the High Impact Areas for Early Years (DH, 2014). Data from a national survey reveals a picture of decline in prescribing practice. Nearly 95% of respondents were practitioners holding the NMC recordable qualification of Community Practitioner Nurse Prescriber, yet only 65% reported themselves as actively using the qualification in practice.

Health visitors need to re-engage with prescribing and its position within the health visiting role, to recognise the potential for prescribing to reduce health inequalities and to be re-acquainted with the value of the prescribing practice as being more than just simply writing prescriptions. The directory lists a number of resources and opportunities for personalised CPD to support this area. We have also produced a Prescribing resource as a aide memoir for practice and hope to develop a CPD resource to support quality updates for health visitors.

Supporting Health Visitors and Fostering Resilience: Literature Review

This review highlights some key questions about approaches to the support of health visitors that will foster their resilience and help retain them within the workforce to deliver compassionate care in health visiting practice.