Warburton and Kahn (2007) noticed that the experienced,
skilled and often senior nurses who attended their UK
non-medical prescribing programme also had problems with
drug calculations. Non-medical prescribing was first suggested
by Cumberledge in 1986 when she reviewed the
community nursing services; she recommended that district
nurses and health visitors should be able to prescribe from a
limited list of items (Department of Health 1986). In 1994,
district nurse and health visitor prescribing from a restricted
formulary was introduced at eight pilot sites and, since May
2006, appropriately qualified healthcare professionals are
allowed to prescribe independently within their area of
competence from the whole of the British National Formulary
(BNF), with the exception of certain controlled drugs
(Warburton & Kahn 2007).