Background The advantages of timely prescribing for palliative patients is well documented (NICE. Care of dying adults in the last days of life. [NG31], 2015; NIHR. Health Social Care Serv Res. 15.06.21, doi: 10.3310/alert_46494; Osborne, Kerr. Int J Palliat Nurs. 2021; 27(4): 334–342) and Weston Hospicecare has built a team of HCNS prescribers to provide patients with this service. Governance was set up in 2017 with our first NMP completing the training in 2018. Six of our team are now NMPs and our aim will be to offer the training to all our HCNSs as time allows.

Aim To review our NMP prescribing service, then examine how this could be refined and improved in preparation for the next step of electronic prescribing.

Method A mixed methodology approach combining quantitative and qualitative. Using data gathered from quarterly audits, interviews with NMPs and patients/families and feedback from clinical partner services.

Results NMP prescribing has become an integral part of the care provided by our HCNS prescribers.

The amount of prescriptions and breadth of medications has increased. Whilst the time, commitment to record keeping, training and reflection on practice has impacted on busy workloads of the HCNSs, it is the consensus that benefits of prescribing for patients enhances the job role and satisfaction for those nurses. Patients and clinical partners feedback is positive.

Conclusion HCNS non-medical prescribing is an invaluable addition to the skill set of our team. The NMPs feel enabled to discuss and advise clinicians regarding medication and write up palliative drug charts with confidence (NHS England. Specialist palliative and end of life care services: adult service specification. 2023). As a result of this project we aim to continue to build our team of NMPs, possibly expanding training into our In-Patient Unit, facilitating future ambition for nurse-led admissions. We intend streamlining the necessary record keeping, to maintain safe practice and adequate audit information. The next challenge for the Weston Hospice community specialist prescribing service is using electronic prescribing and how we can ensure cohesiveness across the shared patient database (NHS England. Electronic prescriptions for prescribers [internet]).