The call follows a consultation published last week that suggested a range of proposals to extend nurse prescribing.
Terence Stephenson, professor of child health at the University of Nottingham and a member of the Committee on Safety of Medicines, said the proposals would help speed up prescriptions and treatment for children needing licensed drugs. But he described current guidance, which prohibits nurse prescribers from prescribing off-label drugs to children, except in exceptional circumstances, as "unduly restrictive".
Stephenson added: "Using advanced neonatal practitioners might be a way of staffing units depleted by the European Working Time Directive.
But it won't work if they can't prescribe."
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