Introduction and background In the Netherlands, supplementary prescribing authority was granted to Bachelor level registered specialist nurses in 2014. A team of Dutch diabetes specialist nurse prescribers, in preparation for the prescriber role, was facilitated in their self-imposed quest to master evidence based practice competencies to substantiate their clinical decisions and contend with physicians doubting their prescribing competency. This provided the opportunity to investigate how these nurse prescribers act to achieve this implementation and learn from their experiences. Aims The study aimed to develop a conceptual framework of the evidence based practice implementation by Dutch diabetes specialist nurse prescribers, to make recommendations for policy, education and practice for prescribing by nurses in the Netherlands. The preliminary focussing questions where: - What are the reasons why diabetes specialist nurse prescribers apply or reject evidence based practice, and - how can these nurses use evidence based practice within their professional role and position, and enhance nurse prescribing practice? Method A grounded theory approach was chosen to investigate the nurse prescribers’ uptake process of evidence based practice with a focus on influences. Research data consists of face-to-face interviews held with eight nurse participants, two nursing department managers and two diabetes care physicians and two nursing university lectures. Additional data came from educational evaluations and focus groups held with the nurse participants. Data was collected during the period from November 2014 to January 2019. Data analysis was performed with ATLAS.ti7 initially using Seidel's analysis model. Findings The conceptual framework describes the process of nurse prescribers taking the role of ‘reflective evidence based practice professional’ enhanced by Professional Identity Formation. This role taking is a means to underpin clinical decision making and derive proposals to tailor a patients’ diabetes care plan ...