The British Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
– Volume 1, Issue 4 April 2009

Clinical leadership required — and that means you!
Martin Stephens explains the importance of clinical leadership in improving patient care, and why this refers to pharmacists at all levels of practice.

Professional body debate is heading off at a tangent
Much debate surrounding the establishment of the new professional body for pharmacy seems to be missing the point. Rather than becoming preoccupied with restricted titles, we need to concentrate on sector-wide collaboration to provide the best clinical care to patients, says Philip Brown.

Pharmacists should recognise the need for genetic testing
Personalising medicines according to a patient’s genetic makeup is becoming easier with increasing knowledge and commercially available tests, yet it is not routinely used in clinical practice. Attendees at the EAHP congress heard why pharmacists should help advocate such tests. By Hannah Pike.

Prescriber's Corner describes situations encountered by pharmacist prescribers and invites you to consider clinical decisions about the patient. In this case, you are managing a patient with rheumatoid arthritis who is either intolerant of, or unresponsive to, standard drug treatment.

Changing catheter-locking solutions to reduce infection
Trisodium citrate has recently been introduced as a catheter-locking solution in Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. Jo Jenkins, Clare Daniels and Nick Pritchard describe the impact this has had on reducing catheter-related infections in patients receiving haemodialysis.

Improving patient counselling in capecitabine treatment
Outpatients taking oral chemotherapy need careful counselling. Reshenthie Govender describes the early benefits from a pilot study to establish a standard counselling procedure and improve the experience for patients taking capecitabine at a specialist oncology centre.

Raising prescribing standards through doctor training
Involving clinical pharmacists in the training programme for junior doctors can be beneficial for both the doctors and the pharmacy department. Alyson Williamson describes the approach taken by one trust and the feedback received to date.