Role of nurses in supporting proactive deprescribing
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Role of nurses in supporting proactive deprescribing

David John Wright Professor in pharmacy practice, School of Pharmacy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England
Sion Scott PhD student in pharmacy practice, School of Pharmacy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England
Jackie Buck Lecturer in adult nursing and research, School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England
Debi Bhattacharya Senior lecturer in pharmacy practice, School of Pharmacy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England

Why you should read this article:
  • To recognise the importance of proactive deprescribing in improving patient outcomes, and saving money, with respect to the cost of the medicines and the unnecessary use of NHS resources

  • To understand the barriers and enablers for patients and healthcare professionals in relation to deprescribing

  • To consider your role in proactive deprescribing in terms of supporting patients when they trial discontinuation of medicines and require follow-up consultations

Deprescribing is the term used to describe the discontinuation of medicines. It can be either ‘reactive’, for example in response to an adverse event or therapeutic failure, or ‘proactive’, when the prescriber and patient decide to discontinue the medicine because its future benefits no longer outweigh its potential for harm. At present, there is a limited amount of proactive deprescribing activity in primary and secondary care. This article provides the rationale for increasing proactive deprescribing activity, lists the medicines this relates to, identifies the barriers and enablers to its implementation, and describes the potential role of the nurse in this process.

Nursing Standard. 34, 3, 44-50. doi: 10.7748/ns.2019.e11249

Citation

Wright DJ, Scott S, Buck J et al (2019) Role of nurses in supporting proactive deprescribing. Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2019.e11249

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

d.j.wright@uea.ac.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

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