Chemotherapy Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Chemotherapy, including details on cancer treatment, side effects, drugs.

Use of prescription drugs: rising or declining?

Crockett AB

School of Nursing, Box 81, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, USA. acrocket@mtsu.edu

Prescribing practices are a reflection of health professionals' abilities to discriminate among the various choices of drugs and determine the ones that will most benefit their patients. As selective as practitioners must be, they cannot limit themselves to knowing only those drugs that fit within the dominant paradigm of acute care. They must broaden their exposure to incorporate knowledge of drugs that permeate clients' lives through media and self-administration. Health promotion drug use is just emerging as a prescriptive activity, but it will become more significant in the future. Primary and secondary prevention drug uses are in flux, and tertiary prevention drug use is likely to overwhelm our system, particularly with the baby boom generation, until our society can switch its focus to more health promotion and disease prevention. It is imperative that health professionals develop shared decision-making capabilities for client education and appropriate prescribing. Only when the health care system exhibits a true client-provider partnership will the "five rights"-right drug, right dose, right route, right time, right client-be accurately applied. With the increasing and overwhelming costs of prescription drugs, health practitioners cannot afford to sit idle; as professionals and stakeholders, they must engage health policy makers and persuade these entities to share their concerns and views, and help their clients, the profession, and themselves.

Published 28 February 2005 in Nurs Clin North Am, 40(1): 33-49.
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