Preparing To Prescribe

Drug calculations and learning resources

Get 'Prescriber Ready'

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the professional body for U.K. registered nurses, midwives and nursing associates has stipulated that future nurses should be 'prescriber ready', in a move to ensure the nursing workforce can prescribe medicines soon after registration.

A team of multi-professional experts and prescribers from across five universities has developed a 'Readiness to Prescribe' resource that will fulfil this requirement. Much thought has been put into what this actually means and what 'readiness to prescribe' should actually look like. The objective being to provide students with fundamental prescribing knowledge.

The online platform is based on award-winning content from our established NMP resource, which has been used for over 7 years by Universities all over England to support the delivery of the NMP qualification.

Designed for both MSc students and Undergraduate nursing, the 'Readiness to Prescribe' resource takes a progressive approach to building knowledge and understanding. It is broken into three different parts, starting with baseline knowledge and gradually building to help develop confidence.

Extremely user-friendly, the platform enables the student to track their progress through the resource and has a range of professional videos as well as theoretical content. With a percentage completion bar, the student can easily identify sections they have completed and quizzes they have undertaken.

Free Trial for Universities and Healthcare Providers

If you would like to review the resources or book a resource demonstration:

Book A Demo

Or email Kieran for more information: kieran@snap-ae.com

Please note, the free trial is available only to organisations to review the resource.

Individual accounts and numeracy assessments

Individuals can access the resource directly by setting up an account.

Use the Code NMP50 for a 50% discount:

Purchase Access To The Course


Some employers require a numeracy assessment before approving staff release to undertake a prescribing qualification.
This is because you will need to achieve a 100% pass on a numeracy module during the course.
You can do a free NMP pre-entry test here:

Take NMP pre-entry test

If you are a bit worried about the numeracy aspect of a prescribing course, we have resources on Snap that will help you build confidence before starting. Take a practice assessment first, then follow the links to set up your own account and work through videos and banks of questions.

Resource Demo

Snap has allowed us to save time on producing assessments on clinical numeracy, while still allowing the flexibility to add as many custom questions as we need. As such, our provision of medicines management assessment has become more comprehensive, with more formative assessment provided, and ultimately improved clinical competency for our students. The system is easy to navigate for admin users, and the support provided is very impressive. The team are always open to suggestions to change functionality or better suit our institution's needs. They are all very approachable and responsive to long-term planning.

Chris Williams
Lecturer in Adult Nursing
Sheffield Hallam University

King’s have been using SN@P as a numeracy assessment tool for new nurses and midwives for a few years. It forms an integral part of our local drug assessment programme, ensuring our staff have the right skills and helping keep our patients safe. It is also a useful development and refresher tool for staff who need some extra support. The system is easy to navigate, adaptable to our changing needs and there's always someone on hand to help with any queries.

Elizabeth Leighton
Associate Director of Nursing
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Authors & Contributors

Marlis Haumueller

Marlis Haumueller, RN, MA, BSc(Hons), DPSN, ENB 100/199, RNT, FHEA is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire School of Nursing since 2003. Her background is in adult nursing, specialising in A&E and Critical Care and she worked extensively within the NHS, as a school nurse in an public school and volunteer nurse in Pakistan.

She teaches mainly pre registration nursing students in a wide variety of subjects and ethics in the UCLan Medical School. Whilst teaching pharmacology to pre registration students, she developed a keen interest in the subject. As a course leader for the MSc pre reg nursing she became a member of a working group, initially led by Dilyse Nutall. The aim was to possibly develop an online resource for pre registration students based on the existing NMP course utilised successfully within existing NMP teaching programmes.


Julia Robinson

Julia began her nursing career studying a Bachelor of Nursing Degree at the University of Liverpool which led to a dual registration as a registered general nurse and registered health visitor. Once qualified she began working as a staff nurse at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and also gained a post graduate diploma and qualified as a registered sick children’s nurse. She worked here for many years as a staff nurse and junior sister/teacher-practitioner. Julia has had a varied career working as registered health visitor in East Lancashire, as a volunteer nurse for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Malaysia and currently as a lecturer in children’s nursing at the University of Central Lancashire. It was as a health visitor and gaining her non-medical prescribing qualification that her interests in pharmacology and prescribing started and has since contributed towards the development of the pharmacology and medicines management curriculum at UCLan. Julia has also co-authored a book with her colleague Val Denieul, “Children’s Nursing Placements: Pocket Guides for Students”.


Mark Edwards

Mark is lecturer at the University of Central Lancs (UCLan) Mark is dual qualified in both mental health nursing and health visiting. He has worked in a wide range of clinical areas including inpatient and community settings. He has a wide range of prescribing practice and has prescribed for both adults and children. He has a keen passion for nurses and other non-medical disciplines to develop and build their role identity and sees NMP prescribing as a vital aspect of working effectively in a 21st century healthcare system. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, exercise and cooking


Nahim Khan

Nahim is a Senior Lecturer at The University of Chester, where he teaches on the non-medical prescribing course. He is a pharmacist for over 10 years and became a Pharmacist Independent Prescriber in 2016. Nahim is involved in the design and delivery of the teaching of the non-medical prescribing course. He leads on pharmacology, prescription writing, calculations and other aspects of medicines management.

His previous experience spans all major sectors of pharmacy; academia, industry, community, GP practice and hospital (both mental health and general health). Along with his teaching role, he currently works in general practice and community pharmacy. his interests include non-medical prescribing, good prescribing practice, clinical pharmacy, pharmacy practice and mental health.


Angela Clancy

Angela is a lecturer in Adult nursing at the University of Central Lancashire. She is dual qualified as a Registered General Nurse and Health visitor with a qualification in Non-Medical Prescribing and a BSc (Hons) in Herbal Medicine. She has worked in a variety of NHS and private health care settings those mainly being surgery, orthopaedics, paediatrics and neonatal care, school nursing, health visiting and most recently, the Family Nurse Partnership Programme. Angela has a special interest in Anatomy and physiology and Nutrition.


Gilly Keogh

Gilly is a Senior Lecturer and Non Medical Prescribing Programme Lead at the University of Bolton. She has worked in a range of clinical areas based in the community, as a Macmillan Nurse for Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale and more recently as a Specialist Palliative Care Clinical Nurse Lead at Springhill Hospice in Rochdale where she developed her prescribing practice. Gilly is involved in the design and delivery of the Non Medical Prescribing course at Bolton.


Rebecca Rippon

With a background in Health Visiting and Community Nursing, I am a non medical prescriber (NMP) and Senior Lecturer within the Public Health and Well Being Department at the University of Chester. I teach on both pre-registration and post registration nursing modules and had my own research on NMP published. Prior to nursing, I completed an MA in Cultural History at Aberdeen University and then lived in Japan where I taught English as a foreign language. During my time overseas I volunteered on various Aid Projects with NGO’s across South East Asia, including Vietnam, Thailand, The Phillipines and Indonesia. I have also worked in America and on a Kibbutz in Israel. Education, Travel and culture have always been important to me and all of these experiences steered me firmly towards my chosen career in the Nursing profession (I’ve always wanted to save the world!). I trained in Edinburgh and have consolidated a nursing career spanning from secondary care through to Community Nursing and Health Visiting and now Academia. I consider it a huge privilege to educate and inspire the nurses of tomorrow and bring with me years of experience of working with individuals from other cultures and other walks of life. I love my job and celebrate all nurses.


Alison Buckley

Alison Buckley [MA, PG Cert (Pharmacology), BSc (Hons), HEA Fellow] is a Senior Lecturer in Nursing and Pathway Leader (Adult Nursing) within the Institute of Health at the University of Cumbria. Prior to a career in Higher Education, she worked as a senior nurse at Manchester and Cambridge hospitals in neurosurgery and acute brain injury services. Alison has particular academic interests in ethics, law, neurosciences, pharmacology and professional practice. Her research interests lie in the illness narrative & phenomenological inquiry, and notably in understanding the patient’s experience of altered states of consciousness secondary to neuropathology. She is presently studying part-time for a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Cumbria.


Elizabeth Garth

Liz Garth is the programme lead for Non Medical Prescribing at University of Salford and Lecturer in Nursing. She is a registered mental health nurse and independent nurse prescriber with a background in acute mental health and substance misuse services. Prior to commencing her current role in 2016 she was Lead Clinical Nurse for Community Substance Misuse Services for Cumbria and Greater Manchester West. This involved supporting the development of NMPs within substance misuse services. Her prescribing practice experience is within Community substance misuse services and prison drug services.

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