Abstract
Prescribing of medicines for district nurses was introduced in 1994 in Sweden. The aim with introducing the prescribing was to enable a more effective health care. The purpose of this study was to illustrate how district nurses in homecare experience their right to prescribe. Eleven district nurses were interviewed and content analysis according to Graneheim and Lundman was used. The analysis resulted in five categories: gains, independence, knowledge/responsibility, difficulties and collaboration. The overall theme “the right to prescribe implicate possibilities but also limitations” was found. With the right to prescribe the nurses found their daily work more effective, their professional identity was improved, and the work was experienced as more independent and satisfying. The pharmacological knowledge improved, but at the same time, the interviewed district nurses experienced, the limited selection of medical products as a limitation. Furthermore it was desired that more colleagues could gain the right to prescribe. They also wished to have continuous education but the possibility to life-long education within pharmacology was considered being limited.