The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7315 p327
4 September 2004

Organisation, structure and focus need attention but a useful introduction

‘Pharmaceutical practice’, 3rd edition, edited by A. J. Winfield and R. M. E. Richards. Pp xiii+573. Price £39.99. London: Elsevier Ltd; 2004. ISBN 0 443 07206 X

Producing a book with the simple but ambitious title ‘Pharmaceutical practice’ is always going to be a challenge, particularly in the provision of up-to-date and comprehensive core knowledge for a rapidly developing profession. This third edition attempts to meet this challenge with the introduction of new contributors and the inclusion of new material.

One must recognise that a book intending to meet the needs of all sectors of practice will have diverse content, but this cannot excuse the arbitrary and sometimes confusing organisation of material. For example, chapter 16 deals with “Routes of administration and dosage forms”, but to find information on parenteral routes of administration the reader must turn to chapter 25, “Parenteral products”. At a time when pharmaceutical educators increasingly attempt to integrate, rather than compartmentalise, material, it is difficult to understand why the chapters on “Labelling of dispensed medicines” and “Sterility testing” are not integrated with chapters on “Dispensing techniques” and “The principles and application of quality assurance”, respectively. Conversely, parenteral nutrition and renal dialysis, included together in chapter 28, make strange bedfellows. The well-written section on parenteral nutrition deserves inclusion in a broader chapter on nutritional support where it can be placed in context with enteral feeding and oral supplements.

With the inclusion of a chapter on the World Health Organization and the essential medicines concept, this book has international pretensions. However, other chapters are highly UK-centric and this further adds to the confusing style of the book. Perhaps the breadth of the material is simply too large for a single volume.
On a more positive note, this book contains some excellent and informative chapters, including “Medicines information”, “Responding to symptoms” and Complementary/alternative medicines” to name but a few. The revision process has brought most of the material up to date, although it was disappointing to see no mention of the EU Clinical Trials Directive (announced in 2001) in “The evaluation of medicines” chapter and the omission of more modern infusion containers constructed from EVA or polyolefin in chapter 25, “Parenteral products”.

The key references and further reading are generally comprehensive, but it is irritating that these are collectively grouped in an appendix rather than presented at the end of each chapter to which they relate.

Considerable thought should go into the organisation, structure and focus of subsequent editions of the book. I also have a problem with a book entitled ‘Pharmaceutical practice’ in which the majority of chapters are authored by academics. A constructive suggestion would be the pairing of academic and practitioner authors.

Despite these criticisms, this book is a useful introduction to the various elements of pharmacy practice and will be valued by pharmacy students and student technicians in addition to practising pharmacists. As a researcher, teacher and practitioner or pharmacy, I am pleased to keep a copy on my own bookshelves.



Graham J. Sewell

Graham Sewell is professor of clinical pharmacy at Kingston University and consultant pharmacist at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust