If you try to buy medicine online or in-store you might encounter the term prescription medicine. What really are prescription drugs? These are pharmaceutical drugs that need a valid prescription from a doctor to buy from a pharmacy. These are different to over the counter(OTC) medicine which you can buy directly from your pharmacy, supermarket, or online.
Main reasons behind such categorisations are , Avoidance of drug misuse, prevent unlicensed prescription, and prevent hazarded effects of dangerous drugs.
things to be included in a prescription
- patient identification – Name, age, gender, hospital number, ( Name and at least one other identifier)
- Type of medicine, dose, frequency, route
- Amount to be given at the pharmacy or number of refills
- Doctors signature, name, seal.
Frequency abbreviations in prescriptions
- daily (no abbreviation)
- every other day (no abbreviation)
- BID/b.i.d. (twice a day)
- TID/t.id. (three times a day)
- QID/q.i.d. (four times a day)
- QHS (every bedtime)
- Q4h (every 4 hours)
- Q4-6h (every 4 to 6 hours)
- QWK (every week)
Route abbreviations in prescriptions
- PO (by mouth)
- PR (per rectum)
- IM (intramuscular)
- IV (intravenous)
- ID (intradermal)
- IN (intranasal)
- TP (topical)
- SL (sublingual)
- BUCC (buccal)
- IP (intraperitoneal)