Step 3: Understanding Components of "Prescription"

What is a prescription (Rx)?

It's an order issued by a qualified physician/dentist to a pharmacist to dispense a medication or a medical device to diagnose, treat or prevent a disease. 

COMPONENTS OF PRESCRIPTIONS:

Observe the following prescription:

Generally, a prescription includes EIGHT main components:

1. Prescriber information: Prescriber’s name, degree, speciality, address and telephone number.
2. Patient information: Patient’s name, address, age, and the date of prescription.
3. Superscription: The Latin sign Rx which means ‘‘take thou’’ or ‘‘you take’’ or ‘‘recipe’’. 
4. Inscription: The general content of the prescription. It includes name and strength of the medication whether generic name (Active constituent) or Trade name (proprietary name). 
5. Subscription: Which represents directions of use. It includes type of dosage form or the number of dosage units. 
6. Signa: Also called Transcription, represents the directions to the patient. It includes dose, route of administration (Dosage Form), frequency of use, duration of use and amount to be dispensed. 
7. Prescriber’s signature: Important to assure Legality of Rx. 
8. Refill directions: if indicated, represents number of times for the refill.

Important Abbreviations used in Rx:

The following is the most common abbreviations used in prescriptions which the pharmacist must be aware of.

References:

1. Pharmacy Prescription Requirements - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf (nih.gov)
2. 210_pht_pharmaceutics_i_lecture_-4.pdf (ksu.edu.sa). 
3. lecture-2.pdf (ramauniversity.ac.in)
4. Prescription Abbreviations (umn.edu)

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