The decision to prescribe: influences and choice

Prescribing is a fundamental activity of general practice and prescriptions are a major cost to the health service. Yet the art and practical details of prescribing are rarely learnt in medical school; junior doctors lack confidence in writing prescriptions (Illing, 2008). Prescribing is not straightforward and involves a complicated decision-making process, by both patient and doctor, whose intricacies and governing factors are not yet well understood but where inadequate skills translate to suboptimal prescribing (Jackson et al., 2002). The prescribing process is not simply about choosing a medicine and writing a prescription.