Main description:

Essential Prescribing provides medical students with an easy-to-follow overview of the drugs they are most likely to encounter at medical school and as they start their medical careers.

The book benefits from the same landscape format and approach as Scion's bestselling Essential Examination.

Each class of drug is detailed using a common tabular format, based on the following sections:

Examples
Mode of Action
Routes of Delivery
Indications, Cautions and Contraindications
Interactions
Monitoring
Side-effects
Patient counselling

This consistent approach helps the reader quickly find the pertinent information for the common drugs and situations they are likely to come across, so they can become confident of prescribing the correct drugs for the patient in appropriate doses.

The book also features a questions and answer section at the end of the book for the reader to assess their knowledge.

All medical students and foundation doctors now have to prove their prescribing competence by taking the Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA). Essential Prescribing not only arms the reader with the key knowledge for the PSA, but also provides them with the core prescribing knowledge they will need as their medical careers progress.

Contents:

Preface; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations

General prescribing rules

Section I: Prescribing by system

1. Cardiovascular system

2. Haematological system

3. Respiratory system

4. Gastrointestinal system

5. Renal system

6. Endocrine system

7. Female reproductive system

8. Male reproductive system

9. Central nervous system

10. Musculoskeletal system

Section II: Prescribing by situation

11. Intravenous fluids

12. Oxygen therapy

13. Antibiotics

14. Analgesia

15. Emergency drugs

16. Prescribing in the elderly

Section III: Self-assessment questions and answers

17. PSA-style questions and answers

18. Test your knowledge questions and answers

Appendix: Mnemonic acknowledgments

Index