Louise Guillaume

The introduction of non-medical prescribing for professions such as pharmacy and nursing in recent years offers additional responsibilities and opportunities but attendant training issues. In the UK and in contrast to some international models, becoming a non-medical prescriber involves the completion of an accredited training course offered by many higher education institutions, where the skills and knowledge necessary for prescribing are learnt. Aims: to explore pharmacists' perceptions and experiences of learning to prescribe on supplementary prescribing (SP) courses, particularly in relation to inter-professional learning, course content and subsequent use of prescribing in practice.

In light of the mass media coverage that the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine received as a result of questions raised about its safety, a content analysis of mass media articles about the MMR vaccine was undertaken. The analysis examined 227 articles published in five different information sources in a 2 month period. The analysis looked at 94 content-based variables and the key attributes of these articles including word count and date of publication. Descriptive and analytical statistics relating to both article content and format were produced. The analysis showed that the content and format of articles between different information sources varied widely. These differences can be attributed to the information source in which they are published, but the variability in the content of these information sources provides a challenge to parents who were shown to be using the mass media as an information source.

Background and objective: Pharmacist prescribing is a relatively new intiative in the extension of prescribing responsibilities to non-medical healthcare professionals. Pharmacist supplementary prescribing was introduced in 2003 and allowed prescribing in accordance with a clinical management plan agreed with a medical practitioner and patient to improve patient access to medicines and better utilize the skills of healthcare professionals. The objective of this research was to examine the volume, cost and trends in pharmacist prescribing in community and primary care using Prescription Analysis and Cost (PACT) data and to suggest possible reasons for the trends. Methods: Using PACT data at national, chapter and subchapter level for 2004–2006 the volume, costs and trends for pharmacist prescribing were obtained. Supplemental data and statistical analysis from other sources, relating to prescribing of individual drugs, were also utilized. Results: The total number of items prescribed by pharmacists in community and primary care increased from 2706 in 2004 to 31 052 in 2006. In 2006, pharmacist prescribing represented only 0·004% of all prescribing in the community and primary care setting. Cardiovascular medicines were the most frequently prescribed therapeutic class followed by central nervous system, respiratory, endocrine and gastrointestinal medicines. Conclusion: Pharmacist prescribing is increasing but represents an extremely small proportion of primary care prescribing. PACT data between 2004 and 2006 reflects pharmacist supplementary prescribing alone and has been in the anticipated therapeutic areas of drugs which treat chronic conditions such as hypertension.