Experiences and opinions of multi-professional non-medical oncology prescribers on post-qualification training: a qualitative study

Sophie E Harding; Christopher A Langley; Annabel Borley; Bethan Tranter; David R P Terry

doi:10.1007/s11096-022-01396-6

Experiences and opinions of multi-professional non-medical oncology prescribers on post-qualification training: a qualitative study

Sophie E Harding^*, Christopher A Langley, Annabel Borley, Bethan Tranter, David R P Terry

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Background: Within the UK, a non-medical prescriber is a non-medical healthcare professional who has undertaken post-registration training to gain prescribing rights. Lack of post-qualification NMP training has previously been identified as a barrier to the development of oncology non-medical prescribing practice. Aim: To explore the experiences and opinions of multi-professional non-medical oncology prescribers on post-qualification training. Method: Nine out of 30 oncology non-medical prescribers (three nurses, three pharmacists and three radiographers) from a single cancer centre in Wales, were selected from a study site NMP database using randomisation sampling within Microsoft® Excel. Participants were interviewed using a validated and piloted semi-structured interview design on the topic of post-qualification training for non-medical prescribers. Participants were invited via organisational email. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Anonymised data were thematically analysed aided by NVivo® software. Results: Main themes identified: experience related to training, competency, support and training methods. Competency assessment methods discussed were the annual non-medical prescriber appraisal, peer review and a line manager’s overarching appraisal. Support requirements identified included greater consultant input to help non-medical prescribers identify training and peer support opportunities. Organisational support was requested regarding regular study leave and governance around clinical judgement and errors. The need for regular structured in-house training related to non-medical prescriber’s level of experience was identified. Conclusion: Development of organisation-led governance strategies and in-house training programmes will support training equity for all non-medical prescribers within the organisation.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	698-708
Number of pages	11
Journal	International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
Volume	44
Issue number	3
Early online date	5 Apr 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11096-022-01396-6
Publication status	Published - Jun 2022

Bibliographical note

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Keywords

Drug prescriptions
Education
Medical oncology
Nurses
Pharmacists
Radiology

Access to Document

10.1007/s11096-022-01396-6Licence: CC BY 4.0

Experiences and opinions of multi-professional non-medical oncology prescribers
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Final published version, 753 KBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

@article{91c8d0a5721740ae9ce91e2817ea4282,

title = "Experiences and opinions of multi-professional non-medical oncology prescribers on post-qualification training: a qualitative study",

abstract = "Background: Within the UK, a non-medical prescriber is a non-medical healthcare professional who has undertaken post-registration training to gain prescribing rights. Lack of post-qualification NMP training has previously been identified as a barrier to the development of oncology non-medical prescribing practice. Aim: To explore the experiences and opinions of multi-professional non-medical oncology prescribers on post-qualification training. Method: Nine out of 30 oncology non-medical prescribers (three nurses, three pharmacists and three radiographers) from a single cancer centre in Wales, were selected from a study site NMP database using randomisation sampling within Microsoft{\textregistered} Excel. Participants were interviewed using a validated and piloted semi-structured interview design on the topic of post-qualification training for non-medical prescribers. Participants were invited via organisational email. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Anonymised data were thematically analysed aided by NVivo{\textregistered} software. Results: Main themes identified: experience related to training, competency, support and training methods. Competency assessment methods discussed were the annual non-medical prescriber appraisal, peer review and a line manager{\textquoteright}s overarching appraisal. Support requirements identified included greater consultant input to help non-medical prescribers identify training and peer support opportunities. Organisational support was requested regarding regular study leave and governance around clinical judgement and errors. The need for regular structured in-house training related to non-medical prescriber{\textquoteright}s level of experience was identified. Conclusion: Development of organisation-led governance strategies and in-house training programmes will support training equity for all non-medical prescribers within the organisation.",

keywords = "Drug prescriptions, Education, Medical oncology, Nurses, Pharmacists, Radiology",

author = "Harding, {Sophie E} and Langley, {Christopher A} and Annabel Borley and Bethan Tranter and Terry, {David R P}",

note = "This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.",

year = "2022",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1007/s11096-022-01396-6",

language = "English",

volume = "44",

pages = "698--708",

journal = "International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy",

issn = "2210-7703",

publisher = "Springer",

number = "3",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Experiences and opinions of multi-professional non-medical oncology prescribers on post-qualification training: a qualitative study

AU - Harding, Sophie E

AU - Langley, Christopher A

AU - Borley, Annabel

AU - Tranter, Bethan

AU - Terry, David R P

N1 - This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

PY - 2022/6

Y1 - 2022/6

N2 - Background: Within the UK, a non-medical prescriber is a non-medical healthcare professional who has undertaken post-registration training to gain prescribing rights. Lack of post-qualification NMP training has previously been identified as a barrier to the development of oncology non-medical prescribing practice. Aim: To explore the experiences and opinions of multi-professional non-medical oncology prescribers on post-qualification training. Method: Nine out of 30 oncology non-medical prescribers (three nurses, three pharmacists and three radiographers) from a single cancer centre in Wales, were selected from a study site NMP database using randomisation sampling within Microsoft® Excel. Participants were interviewed using a validated and piloted semi-structured interview design on the topic of post-qualification training for non-medical prescribers. Participants were invited via organisational email. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Anonymised data were thematically analysed aided by NVivo® software. Results: Main themes identified: experience related to training, competency, support and training methods. Competency assessment methods discussed were the annual non-medical prescriber appraisal, peer review and a line manager’s overarching appraisal. Support requirements identified included greater consultant input to help non-medical prescribers identify training and peer support opportunities. Organisational support was requested regarding regular study leave and governance around clinical judgement and errors. The need for regular structured in-house training related to non-medical prescriber’s level of experience was identified. Conclusion: Development of organisation-led governance strategies and in-house training programmes will support training equity for all non-medical prescribers within the organisation.

AB - Background: Within the UK, a non-medical prescriber is a non-medical healthcare professional who has undertaken post-registration training to gain prescribing rights. Lack of post-qualification NMP training has previously been identified as a barrier to the development of oncology non-medical prescribing practice. Aim: To explore the experiences and opinions of multi-professional non-medical oncology prescribers on post-qualification training. Method: Nine out of 30 oncology non-medical prescribers (three nurses, three pharmacists and three radiographers) from a single cancer centre in Wales, were selected from a study site NMP database using randomisation sampling within Microsoft® Excel. Participants were interviewed using a validated and piloted semi-structured interview design on the topic of post-qualification training for non-medical prescribers. Participants were invited via organisational email. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Anonymised data were thematically analysed aided by NVivo® software. Results: Main themes identified: experience related to training, competency, support and training methods. Competency assessment methods discussed were the annual non-medical prescriber appraisal, peer review and a line manager’s overarching appraisal. Support requirements identified included greater consultant input to help non-medical prescribers identify training and peer support opportunities. Organisational support was requested regarding regular study leave and governance around clinical judgement and errors. The need for regular structured in-house training related to non-medical prescriber’s level of experience was identified. Conclusion: Development of organisation-led governance strategies and in-house training programmes will support training equity for all non-medical prescribers within the organisation.

KW - Drug prescriptions

KW - Education

KW - Medical oncology

KW - Nurses

KW - Pharmacists

KW - Radiology

UR - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11096-022-01396-6

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127585924&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s11096-022-01396-6

DO - 10.1007/s11096-022-01396-6

M3 - Article

C2 - 35378673

SN - 2210-7703

VL - 44

SP - 698

EP - 708

JO - International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy

JF - International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy

IS - 3

ER -

Experiences and opinions of multi-professional non-medical oncology prescribers on post-qualification training: a qualitative study

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

An Investigation into Non-medical Prescribing within Oncology

Cite this

Experiences and opinions of multi-professional non-medical oncology prescribers on post-qualification training: a qualitative study

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Student theses

An Investigation into Non-medical Prescribing within Oncology

Cite this