Nurse prescribing-readiness of polish nurses to take on new competencies—a cross-sectional study

Abstract

From January 2016, nurses in Poland received new competencies for prescribing. The work is the first in Poland to elaborate on the subject of nurses’ readiness to learn and develop in the context of new nursing rights regarding autonomous prescription of medication and continuation of the prescription for medication. The aim of the study is to analyze the readiness of Polish nurses to learn and develop in the context of new competencies to write prescriptions. The research was conducted among 756 nurses. The standardized questionnaire (Readiness of Employees for Learning and Development) was used. For all subscales of readiness for learning and development, average scores prevailed. The readiness to write prescriptions was significantly related to the level of openness to changes in the work environment (A1 scale), self-evaluation of past educational development (C5 scale) and educational and professional goals alignment-employee and company (scale D2) and increasing the readiness of nurses to practice all of the aforementioned agents, in particular medical devices. The readiness of nurses to learn and develop at all levels of the subscales was on an average level. Younger nurses, with a shorter seniority, having higher education and additional qualifications had a higher readiness to prescribe medications and write prescriptions. The higher readiness for learning and development was matched by a greater readiness to prescribe. The results obtained can be used to plan training and courses, as well as to create special pro-development programs, which may increase the nurses’ involvement in personal and professional development.