The ever-changing nature of pharmacology has prompted the British Pharmacological Society to develop guidance on core curricula for UK undergraduate courses. These core curricula have resulted from wide consultation prompted by the Education & Training Committee and the Clinical Committee. These core curricula may be useful for the following purposes:
- Ideas for course developers as to what to include in their courses.
- A benchmark from the British Pharmacological Society where course developers feel under pressure to reduce the content of their course.
- To identify the changing nature of the subject.
- A guide to minimum pharmacological knowledge and skills.
- And, for university management, quality assurance and professional bodies to see what the Society considers the core curricula.
Undergraduate pharmacology core curriculum
Core clinical pharmacology curriculum (published by the
British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology)
Ten Principles of Good Prescribing
The Clinical Pharmacology curriculum is supplemented by the ‘Ten Principles of Good Prescribing’. Prescribing is the main approach to the treatment and prevention of disease in modern healthcare. While medicines have the capacity to enhance health, all have the potential to cause harm if used inappropriately. For these reasons the British Pharmacological Society recommends that healthcare professionals who prescribe medicines should do so based on ten principles, which underpin safe and effective use of medicines.