Health Care Provider Behaviors and Characteristics that Are Associated with Issuing Nature Prescriptions

Nature prescriptions (NRx) can help address mental health issues, wellness, physical inactivity, and lack of time spent outdoors but have yet to become widespread in clinical practice. This study explores the behaviors and characteristics of health care providers (HCPs) who issue NRx; motivators and barriers to issuing them; health conditions for which HCPs issue NRx; the time it takes to issue a prescription; the satisfaction level; and perceptions of their effectiveness. A cross-sectional study of an online survey was conducted on 135 HCPs who had registered with ParkRxAmerica.org (aka Natureprescribed.org; PRA). We assessed prescribing behaviors, connectedness to nature (CNS), time spent in nature, burnout, motivators and barriers to and reasons for prescribing, and demographic variables with chi-square test, t-test, and analyses of variance. Half (56%) of respondents issued NRx. This group reported greater CNS and more frequent outdoor breaks. Within this group, frequency of issuing prescriptions, CNS, park visits, outdoor breaks, and less screen time were positively correlated (p < 0.01). Most prescriptions were written for mental and general health conditions, and physical inactivity. More than 80% thought prescriptions were effective for improving physical and mental health. Several barriers to issuing prescriptions existed. HCPs who wrote more prescriptions reported feeling greater CNS, visited greenspace and nature more frequently, took more frequent workday breaks, and reported less screen time. This emphasizes the importance of frequent exposure to nature, both during and outside of work, to improve NRx writing.