Principles of Prescription Writing

Contents of the Prescription

• Strength of the drug
• Be familiar with drugs and their various dosing strengths and dosage forms
• When in doubt, use references

Dosing cont;

• Weight – based dosing
• Always convert patient weight to correct units (kg)
• Liquid medications
• One product may be available in a number of concentrations
• Be familiar with various product concentrations
• Indicate BOTH concentration and dose of medication
• Example: Cephalexin suspension 125 mg/ 5 ml
• 1 teaspoon/ every 8 h

Contents of the Prescription

• Strength of the drug
• Decimal points
• Avoid trailing zeros.
• EX. 5 mg vs. 5.0 mg; can be mistaken for 50 mg
• Always use leading zeros.
• EX. 0.8 ml vs. .8 ml; can be mistaken for 8 ml