Growing numbers of people throughout the world are living healthier and
longer lives, in part due to the availability and use of medicines to treat or
prevent a variety of health conditions. This progress, however, is uneven for
many reasons, including a marked variability in therapeutic knowledge and
practice skills, resources and affordability, adherence to practice guidelines,
and team approach to patient care.
The concepts and skills of clinical pharmacy practice are relevant to all
pharmacists as members of healthcare teams concerned with the effective,
safe and economic use of medicines. Pharmacists working in hospital
pharmacy, community pharmacy, drug or medicines information, clinical
research, government and non-government organisations, teaching and
research will all find this book of relevance to their work. The authors seek to
answer the question ‘How do clinical pharmacists practice?’ rather than
‘What do clinical pharmacists need to know about drugs and therapeutics?’.
As such this new edition of A Textbook of Clinical Pharmacy Practice:
Essential Concepts and Skills complements other textbooks, which focus on
applied therapeutics, and both types of text are needed to prepare pharmacists
for clinical practice. The book is a recommended text for the M Pharm,
Pharmacy Practice and Pharm D programmes.
New chapters in this second edition include Community Pharmacy
Practice, Medication Use in Pregnancy and Lactation, Poison Information
and Ethical Issues in Clinical Research. A number of other chapters have
been completely revised, including Essential Medicines and Rational Drug
Use, Drug Information and Therapeutic Drug Monitoring. All chapters begin
with learning objectives, which should be reviewed again once the chapter
has been studied. Many chapters include updated case studies, practice
scenarios and exercises to illustrate the way concepts and skills may be
applied in daily clinical practice. Key messages are summarised at the
conclusion of each chapter and highlight important ‘take home’ messages and
principles. Reading suggestions and relevant websites assist further study of
each topic. A list of medical abbreviations is included and a comprehensive
glossary and index can be found at the end of the book. New appendices
include reference ranges for common laboratory investigations and how to
take a medication history.
The most appropriate treatment approach in any specific clinical situation
will vary between practice settings and as new evidence becomes available.
The treatment regimens used in case studies, practice scenarios and examples
are used to illustrate practice concepts and skills, and when applying these in
clinical practice, readers should refer to the latest treatment guidelines.
As with the first edition, we have been fortunate that many highly
respected Indian and international authors have contributed chapters, and we
wish to sincerely thank them for their generous participation. The invaluable
assistance of Madhavi Sethupathi at Universities Press is gratefully
acknowledged, as is the support of our respective departments and colleagues.
Finally, we wish to thank all those who have utilised this book and
provided feedback to us since publication of the first edition in 2004. We
hope that this new edition fulfils your expectations.