. 2014 Jul 22;28:77.

Table 2 . Cods, Categories and Illustrations of Features of nurse prescribing identified by the meta- synthesis .

Categories	Cods	Illustrations	Authors
Quality and safety of practice	-No differences in the health status of patients treated with Physicians and nurses	"No differences in health status were found"	Horrocks, et al., 2002 ⁽⁷⁾
	-Long consultation nurse practitioners than to physicians	"Nurse practitioners had longer consultations and made more investigations than did doctors"	Horrocks, et al., 2002⁽⁷⁾
	- No differences in prescriptions, return consultations, or referrals	"No differences were found in prescriptions, return consultations, or referrals."	Horrocks, et al., 2002⁽⁷⁾
	-Better quality of care Quality of care in some ways for nurse practitioner consultations	"Quality of care was in some ways better for nurse practitioner consultations"	Horrocks, et al., 2002⁽⁷⁾
		some studies in primary and secondary care found that nurses had longer consultation times than GPs, although does not report the statistical significance of this finding.	Van Ruth, et al., 2008 ⁽¹²⁾
	-No security problem	"The synthesis revealed no major safety concerns as a result of the implementation of PGDs."	Price, et al., 2012⁽¹⁶⁾
	similar or better therapeutic Clinical parameters of nursing	"Clinical parameters were the same or better for treatment by nurses"	Van Ruth, et al., 2008⁽¹²⁾
	-Similar or higher patient satisfaction with nurse prescribing	"Eight studies all found that patients being treated by nurses were just as satisfied or more satisfied than patients being treated by physicians"	Van Ruth, et al., 2008⁽¹²⁾
	-Same or better quality of perceived nurses care	"perceived quality of care by nurses is similar or better."	Van Ruth, et al., 2008⁽¹²⁾
Confidence in prescribing	- Felt confident	"All studies reported that the majority of respondents felt confident in their prescribing."	Creedon , et al., 2009⁽¹³⁾
	- moderately confident	"Most respondents that prescribed less than three times per week were moderately confident and felt somewhat limited by the nurse prescribers’ formulary"	O' Connell, et al., 2009⁽¹⁴⁾
	-Feeling of Limited prescription
Areas of nurse prescribing	nurses prescribing practices	Nine studies investigated nurses prescribing practices consisted of antibiotics, anti hypertensives, cardiovascular drugs, dermatological and skin conditions, analgesics, diabetic medications and controlled drugs.	O' Connell, et al., 2009⁽¹⁴⁾
Prescribing patterns	diversity of forces leding to nurse prescribing	"A diversity of external and internal forces has led to the introduction of nurse prescribing internationally."	Kroezen, et al., 2011⁽²⁾
		"The legal, educational and organizational conditions under which nurses prescribe medicines vary considerably between countries; from situations where nurses prescribe independently to situations in which prescribing by nurses is only allowed under strict conditions and supervision of physicians."	Kroezen, et al., 2011⁽²⁾
	variation in prescribing patterns	"There is some variation in the prescribing patterns of district nurses’, health visitors’ and practice nurses"	Latter and Courtenay, 2004⁽¹⁰⁾