3 NIP
Nurse Independent Prescribing (NIP)
Registered nurses who have completed the NIP course and have the appropriate annotation on their professional register, Nurse Independent Prescribers (NIP) can prescribe from the full BNF with the exception of some Controlled Drugs.
Legislative changes in 2010 has meant that they can now also prescribe unlicensed and ‘off-label’ drugs (i.e. drugs used outside their product licensing) where it is custom and practice to prescribe the drug in that way. e.g. if contained within a Trust clinical guideline. This indicates that a drug used ‘off-label’ has been approved by an appropriate Trust Forum.
Nurse Independent Prescribers should not prescribe for clinical conditions outside their area of expertise or any medicine that they do not feel competent to prescribe.
Following Consultation, legislative amendments are awaited which will give full access to NIPs to prescribing Controlled Drugs within their competence.