How to Write a Prescription? (With Format) | Pharmacology

This article will guide you to learn about how to write a prescription. Also learn about the format of prescription writing.

Prescription Writing:

A prescription is an order to a pharmacist by a clinician to prepare and dispense or sell the preparation to a patient or to an animal owner. It is a legally recognised document and clinician is held responsible for its accuracy. As a licensed practitioner, veterinarians are entitled by law to dispense, administer or prescribe medications for animal patients.

A prescription focuses the diagnostic acumen and therapeutic proficiency of the clinician. It should be clearly written, so that misinterpretation in like-appearing names of drugs is avoided. Owner of patients should be instructed adequately on how to administer prescribed medication. The prescription must be written in ink or otherwise so as to be indelible.

Form of the Prescription:

The classical prescription should have the following essential parts in order:

1. Date:

The date on which prescription is written.

2. The identity, age, sex, breed of an animal and address of owner also be mentioned.

3. Superscription:

It consists of the symbol Rx, an abbreviation of the Latin word recipe which means “take thou of”. It is also the Roman symbol for Jupiter and is presumably intended to invoke his help in making the prescription effective in the cure of disease.

4. Inscription:

The inscription is the body of the prescription which lists the names and the amount of drugs to be incorporated in the prescription. The names of the drugs should be in English and total amounts required should be written in the metric system Abbreviations and chemical formulae of drug should be avoided.

If prescriber desires the patient to have a particular proprietary preparation this should be stated in the prescription. In practice, prescription orders seldom contain more than one drug name. Traditionally when more than one ingredients are prescribed then their order should be – (a) basis, (b) adjuvant, (c) corrective and (d) vehicle.

5. Subscription:

The subscription directs pharmacist, dispenser what to make from ingredients i.e. mixture, liniment, ointment etc. and the quantity of the formulation to dispense. These instructions may be entirely in English or with Latin abbreviations.

6. The Signa (Sig. or S.) or Signature:

The signature does not refer to the prescriber’s signature but it is derived from the Latin word ‘Signature’ which means ‘let it be labeled’. It is the part of the prescription where the prescriber instructs the pharmacist what he wishes to be written on the label of the dispended product.

Occasionally, this part of the prescription order is called the transcription. It is good prescription practice to include, under this part of any prescription the words for ‘animal treatment only’, the dose, and any particular directions or precautions relating to the use of the product.

7. Prescriber’s Signature:

The signature of the practitioner must appear on the prescription to make it a legal document. Physician’s full name his/her address and his/her registration number may also be mentioned. The essential parts of a classical prescription are presented in the following example.

The modern prescription is written as simply as possible. It consists of a minimum number of drugs, written in English, employs metric system and may use several abbreviations.

Classes of Prescription Orders:

Prescription orders are divided into two classes depending upon the availability of the prescribed medications.

(i) Pre-compounded and

(ii) Extemporaneous or Compounded or Magistral

A pre-compounded prescription order is one that calls for a drug or mixture of drugs supplied by the pharmaceutical company by its official or proprietary name and pharmacist dispense the same in the form available without making any pharmaceutical alteration.

Example of pre-compounded prescription order:

For a dog

Rx

Calamine lotion – 480 ml

Shake well before use and apply daily on skin lesions.

For animal treatment only.

While in extemporaneous or compounded prescription, the clinician selects the drugs, doses and form of the preparation that he/she desires and the pharmacist prepares the medication accordingly.

Examples of common extemporaneous or compounded prescription orders used in animal treatment are listed below:

Abbreviations:

A number of abbreviations of Latin words and phrases have been conventionally used in prescription writing. Leaving aside a few, most of them are gradually disappearing from the prescriptions.

Names of the drugs to be included in the prescription should not be abbreviated. Chemical formulas must not be used in prescription writing as it may increase the probability of error. The following is the list of some abbreviations used in prescription writing.

It is advisable to express the dosage regimens as mg/kg and time intervals in hours e.g. q4h, q8h, q12h and q24h etc. to avoid the confusion in q.i.d., t.i.d., b.i.d and s.i.d.