Why can't registered nurses [non NP's] prescribe medications?

uhh... this is something that's pretty much of an issue in class right now. I'd like some professional insight to this and in turn, relay unto others what I will be learning from you guys. Thanks. :-)

Well, in all honesty, we do. Routinely. Not in the most direct sense, but any Nurse worth his or her space on a unit has called a doctor to request something for a patient, or to tell a Doctor which antibiotic to use based on a culture and sensitivity.
Now, of course there are plenty of reasons why Nurses cannot prescribe in the traditional sense, and even NP's have different scopes of practice in different states. Nurses cannot dispense medication either in many states, as this is a pharmacist's area.
MD's have more education and in general have more knowledge of the pathophysiology and the ways in which the pharmaceuticals will affect the body.
The biggest issue is that there is a pecking order for a reason, and that is to deliver as consistently good healthcare as we can. All of us as a team. Which is a good analogy. Why doesn't every player on a team have the same abilities and responsibilities? Because they would be less effective than they are when each plays his or her respective position well.

Why would they be able to? I don't want someone with a two-year degree figuring out what combinations of medicine may work on me. It's hit and miss with doctors.

For one thing, whenever standards are set there will be people who manage to slip in just over them. What I am saying is that there are doctors who should not be doctors, lawyers who should not be lawyers, and so on and so forth. If you lower the bar to Associate's degrees then you open up a vast array of people and give them greater responsibility. RN's don't receive the extensive education in chemistry required to judge the affects of mixing the chemicals in drugs. If you suggest that RN's could get more training, that's a dead end too. We are already hurting for nurses as it is. The only reason it isn't critical is because it is one of the few jobs that can be fairly lucrative with little education.

Because they are not licensed to do that. Physicians, yes. there is more complication in the human body that physicians studied and continue to study to be able to prescribe medications. Nurses do not undergo the same rigidity/specialization to be able to prescribe medications.

In the medical profession we have what we call ethics or simply a code of conduct.
This emphasises the role of each medical practitioner, nurses included.
It's by this that nurses are assigned role and beside those roles can not do any thing else.
Prescription is only left foer Pharmacists and dispenser though MD can do so.
It does matter what level a nurse has but rather the profession as nursing

1.. Alot of RN's have difficulty managing to be an effective RN
and are slow to update their basic skills as it is. Medication prescribing would be a nightmare to monitor the skill level of all RN's. NP's are still restricted on what kind of meds. they can prescribe, and it is a tough registration process to reach that level in the first place.

2. Doctors would have a cow. They have difficulty accepting NP registration as it is.

3. Every division in health care has it's area of expertise. I for one am happy to leave doctors with prescribing; pharmacists with dispensing and nurses with administering.

4. As you build up your experience and knowledge, you find yourself telling the doctors what you want / need / recommend anyway. The smarter doctors appreciate your input. The ego trippers do what they want anyway, often later realising who had the better idea.

5. We are the care providers who most commonly provide wholistic care, and a more rounded view of healing. If nurses start focussing in on medical models, there is a serious risk that the art of healing will become limited to medical diagnoses and pharmaceuticals. Which will be to the detriment of everybody.