Current State of Prescription of Medications by Licensed Medical Nurses in the Costa de Oaxaca Region

Abstract

The prescription of medications by licensed medical nurses has grown significantly worldwide during the last decade. Mexico recently added Article 28 Bis to the General Health Law, which states that licensed medical nurses may prescribe when they do not have the services of a doctor. To date there is no study at the national level and much less one at a local level which shows/demonstrates the state of prescriptions by nurses. Therefore, the objective of this work focuses on describe the current state of this practice in the Costa de Oaxaca region. A quantitative study was used, with a descriptive analysis and cross-sectional scope. The population was constituted by 86 licensed nurses assigned to the Sanitary Jurisdiction 04 Coast of the state of Oaxaca and who work in the first level of attention. The sample consisted of 11 licensed medical nurses selected for convenience. A survey with 10 questions was designed and for the analysis of the data the statistical package SPSS version 22 was used, where the functions of descriptive statistics and multiple answers are used. As part of the results, 54.5% of the participants said they had the adequate knowledge to make the correct diagnosis of the pathology. Likewise, a 54.5% of the participants mentioned that they had never heard about Article 28 Bis of General Health Law, until it was mentioned in the application of the survey. 100% of the participants prescribe medication in the health centers. The most prescribed medication was paracetamol (12.4%). And 100% of the participants mentioned that the nursing professional should prescribe. Based on the results obtained in this study, it is proposed that licensed nurses who work in the first level of care in health centers of the Secretary of Health of the Costa region of the state of Oaxaca, prescribe medication and assume this practice as a function of the profession.