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The foundations of good prescribing are quality engagement with trusted healthcare staff, access to knowledgeable and skilled personnel, and full involvement in decisions about care. Beginning with a discussion of how prescribing practices have evolved, this book then proceeds to outline how non-medical prescribing is now implemented from the perspectives of nurses, pharmacists and allied health professionals. It explores the impact on practice, and integrates the views and experiences of patients and service users, as individuals assume responsibility for their own health and select from a range of treatment options. The findings reported in this book describe the challenges posed by policy initiatives, the implications they have for healthcare personnel, and highlight areas in which further organisational change is required before the full impact of non-medical prescribing will be felt.

Wherever human communities have existed, strong evidence suggests that they used an assortment of medicines for alleviating suffering and promoting health (Wear, 1992). Healthcare in the past was closely aligned to the environment in which people lived, and being close to nature contributed to the health and well-being of individuals as well as the prosperity and survival of the tribe. Medicines were dispensed and administered by healers and shamans, who were revered for their skills in combating the malevolent forces thought to cause disease (Sonnedecker, 1976). Their medicines, often referred to as ‘nostrums’ (Latin nostrum remedium , meaning ‘our remedy’), were developed from a profound knowledge of plants, herbs and minerals. Healers strove to keep the constituents of their medicines secret from other tribes and healers. To enhance their therapeutic potency, medicines had to be administered under special conditions that might relate to the time of day or phase of the moon and, in addition, were usually accompanied by elaborate rituals, incantations and prayers. In various forms, natural remedies have doubtless brought comfort to countless millions over the centuries, and people have continued to believe in them despite the fact that they have sometimes proved disappointing or even lethal in their effects (Parish 1980). Today it is known that a number of factors beyond the constituents of the medicinal compound itself contribute to the benefit derived from them; these factors include being clear about what the problem is, trusting the person who prescribes the treatment and abiding by whatever regimens or lifestyle changes are recommended in order to restore and promote health.