Book excerpt: Prescribing and medicines management is one of the most common interventions in health care delivery and in the future will become part of the role of many thousands of nurses, pharmacists and other professions allied to medicine (PAMs). Independent and Supplementary Prescribing: An Essential Guide is the first book of its kind and explores a number of key areas for prescribers, including the ethical and legal issues surrounding prescribing, the psychology and sociology of prescribing, prescribing within a public health context, evidence-based prescribing, prescribing within a team context, basic pharmacology, monitoring skills and drug calculations. Each of these topics is written by a recognised expert in the field and will provide readers with the theoretical underpinning upon which safe and effective prescribing is based. This book is essential reading for nurses, pharmacists and other professions allied to medicine that will soon have the power to prescribe.