Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Pharmacy: Dispensing and Patient Care
Core concepts
Practice questions test safe dispensing, prescription interpretation, and pharmaceutical care. Know the parts of a prescription (superscription, inscription, subscription, signa, prescriber information), common abbreviations (q.d., b.i.d., t.i.d., q.i.d., p.o., p.r.n., h.s., a.c., p.c.), and error-prone abbreviations to avoid (U for units, q.d. vs q.i.d., trailing zeros). Understand prescription screening: legality, therapeutic duplication, interactions, dose appropriateness, and allergy cross-reactivity.
Dispensing and counseling
Know the dispensing process: receive and validate, interpret, compound if needed, label, double-check, counsel, and document. Counseling points include dose, timing, administration technique (inhalers, eye drops, suppositories), storage, and missed doses. Special populations (pediatrics, pregnancy, renal/hepatic impairment, elderly) require dose adjustment and deprescribing consideration.
Medication safety and adherence
Understand high-alert medications (insulin, anticoagulants, opioids, concentrated electrolytes), look-alike/sound-alike names, and the importance of reconciliation at transitions of care. Adherence barriers include cost, complexity, and side effects; interventions include simplified regimens and reminders.
Traps and rule of thumb
Questions often ask which action is the pharmacist's first step - usually clarify with the prescriber before dispensing when there is a legal or safety issue. Rule of thumb: if a prescription is ambiguous or potentially unsafe, do not guess; verify.