BMJ  2006;333:756 (7 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7571.756-b

Letter

Poor prescribing is continual

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—An editorial should bring an important topic to readers' attention and engage their interest, provoke a reaction, and trigger debate. We are delighted that the recent editorial on poor prescribing in the United Kingdom seems to have done all of these things.1

We did not give a thorough account of all the evidence, but we are surprised that Rubin thinks that we provided no evidence at all.2 We cited supporting evidence for our major statements, citations that in turn contain further references to published evidence.

We do not know how much teaching is required to achieve a minimum desirable standard of prescribing proficiency, but we do not believe that reducing the exposure of medical students to experts in the principles and practice of prescribing will produce better prescribers, particularly when drug treatment is becoming increasingly complex. The fact that nurse prescribers are exposed to more than four times . . . [Full text of this article]

Jeffrey K Aronson, president-elect, David B Barnett, past treasurer, clinical section, Robin E Ferner, chairman, clinical section committee, Albert Ferro, vice president (clinical), Graeme Henderson, president, Simon R Maxwell, past vice president (clinical), Michael D Rawlins, honorary fellow, David J Webb, chairman, committee of heads and professors of clinical pharmacology

British Pharmacological Society, London EC1V 2SC


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