Navigating the Wide World of Dosage Forms

While there's nothing fun or interesting about learning the various dosage forms (and believe me, there's a lot), learning them will help you to avoid mistakes. There is nothing more confusing to a patient than when their label says capsule and there are tablets in the bottle and vice versa. And knowing the difference between forms makes you better at your job. The dosage form can tell you which auxiliary stickers to affix or alert you to medication errors. If the form and the route don't match according to the prescription, the doctor may have prescribed the wrong medication.

Abbreviations in the Pharmacy

Abbreviations are used in the pharmacy for just about everything and knowing what they mean is critical to filling a prescription accurately and quickly. There are abbreviations to cover just about everything. Unfortunately this blog will be a little dense... there's no "fun" way to write them up. The abbreviations are separated as follows:

• Time of Day
• Frequency of Administration
• Route of Administration
• Dosage Forms
• Dosage Size
• Diagnosis
• Miscellaneous Other Abbreviations

Labeling Medications

Alright, let's talk about what needs to be on a label. There's the easy stuff: pharmacy name and all of that, but that's mostly the job of the pharmacist (or whoever is ordering the labels) since most of the time that is all preprinted. Don't worry... I'll cover that stuff, too. But my biggest concern right now is the part that you're in charge of. So really... What do you actually NEED to put on the label?

There are eight items required by federal law to appear on all prescription labels....Any guesses on what?