Community palliative care clinical nurse specialists as independent prescribers: part 1.

The Department of Health and Social Care has recently reiterated its commitment to improvement in the quality of end-of-life care and emphasised the importance of all patients having rapid access to medication. The aim of this study was to explore the lived experiences of clinical nurse specialists who are able to prescribe independently in their role in providing support for patients with palliative care needs within the community setting. Interpretive phenomenology was employed in order to understand and interpret the experiences of six nurse independent prescribers employed as community palliative care clinical nurse specialists. This purposive sampling was preferred with semi-structured interviews as the most appropriate data collection technique. This is the first of a two-part article. In this part, the authors describe how the study was undertaken. Part 2 will provide the results, outline the key themes that were extracted from the study, and discuss them. It will be published in the next issue of the Journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]