Cognition, attitude and suggestions of managers of primary healthcare institutions in Jiangsu province regarding the prescription rights of public health physicians: a 2024 online questionnaire survey

Objective  To understand the cognition, attitudes, and suggestions of managers in primary medical institutions towards the prescription rights of public health physicians, thus providing references for improving the policy on public health physicians′ prescription rights and promoting the integration of medical and prevention services.

Methods In December 2024, through the convenience sampling method combined with the snowball sampling method, 85 managers from primary medical institutions in Jiangsu province were selected as the subjects. An online questionnaire was used for the survey, and SPSS 27.0 and Nvivo software were used for data analysis.

Results Among the surveyed managers in primary medical institutions, 91.76% (78/85) had learned about the relevant information on public health physicians′ prescription rights; 95.29% (81/85) recognized the "physician" identity of public health physicians; and 92.94% (79/85) supported public health physicians having corresponding prescription rights after training. Among them, 92.94% (79/85) believed that granting prescription rights could provide integrated medical and prevention services, and 92.94% (79/85) believed that the ambiguity of practice scope and unclear regulations were the main obstacles to the implementation of granting public health physicians′ prescription rights. It was suggested that the scope of practice of prescription rights should be expanded in directions such as chronic disease management. Among the surveyed managers with positive attitude and providing suggestions, 98.25% (56/57) believed that the training and assessment of public health physicians′ prescription rights should include corresponding clinical knowledge and skills, and preventive medicine education should increase clinical practice hours and gradually align with clinical medicine. The cognition of the drawbacks of the absence of prescription rights (χ² = 6.740, P < 0.05) and the selection of training and assessment methods (χ² = 7.577, P < 0.05) were related to whether the original profession was preventive medicine, and the suggestion for the admission of public health physicians′ prescription rights was related to whether they were public health (assistant) physicians (χ² = 6.518, P < 0.05).

Conclusions Managers in primary medical institutions generally hold a positive attitude towards public health physicians′ prescription rights but are constrained by factors such as unclear regulations, insufficient training, and low patient trust. It is suggested that the system norms, training assessment, and cognitive guidance should be improved to promote the implementation of prescription rights and the integration of medical and prevention services.