{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.026259378349410504, 'fraction_numerical': 0.006966773847802787, 'mean_word_length': 5.20265780730897, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Education for new prescribers: a summary of the proceedings of a symposium held at The British Pharmacological Society, December 2005.

This symposium was organized as a collaborative venture between the Education Subcommittee and Clinical Section Committee of the British Pharmacological Society in recognition of the slow but steady advent of nonmedical prescribing in the UK, which has created significant opportunities for improved medicines management, together with a crucial responsibility to ensure that new prescribers are appropriately prepared and competent. The intention was to provide a programme that would update Society members on recent developments in the provision of prescribing powers to nurses and other health professionals, and to advertise the Society and its resources to those with a special interest in pharmacology education for new prescribers, who are not currently members of the Society. To this end, the symposium programme focused first on context and then on content. It commenced with a brief history of the extension of prescribing rights (M.A.), followed by an analytical description of an innovatory e-learning programme designed to meet the education-for-prescribing requirements of people from a wide range of health professions (M.B. and M.A.) and an account of related issues and resources from a medical perspective (S.M.). [The DVD referred to in the symposium has since received a gold award from the International Visual Communications Association (presented 25 March 2006).] The second part explored ways in which pharmacology education can be delivered effectively for new prescribers with a limited background in chemistry (H.L.L.), with particular focus on drug interactions and cytochrome P450 (M.L.). This paper provides an overview and summary of the papers, with particular emphasis on the e-learning project.