[Nurses precribing medications: possibilities and perspectives].

Efforts to ensure the implementation of nurses prescribing medications have been a challenge in different parts of the world. This paper aimed at describing how this issue has been accomplished in some countries and reflecting about nursing professional legislation in Brazil in relation to this subject. Data from the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the Ministry of Health Programs on Public Health show the need for a stronger political action by nurses and their institutional representations in order to create a legislation to better define their scope and functions in relation to prescription of medicines.