The BNF serves as a valuable reference resource for prescribing information, containing a vast amount of knowledge.
You must familiarize yourself extensively with the contents of the BNF, as this will greatly benefit you in the clinical aspects of your foundation trainee pharmacist training and in preparing for the GPhC exam/registration assessment.
To help you get to know some of the BNF’s content and practice using the BNF, we have compiled a list below that highlights the various topics and subjects covered in the BNF. Following this, there is a practice quiz designed to assess your ability to locate specific information within the BNF (e.g. looking up a drug-drug interaction) and identify any gaps in your knowledge of the BNF.
Although this page is primarily intended for trainee pharmacists, other healthcare professionals like doctors and nurses undergoing their training may also find this useful.
Topics/subjects in the BNF
Task: Practice how to use the BNF by finding where the following topics/subjects are located in the BNF
- E numbers and their names
- Latin abbreviations used in prescription writing with their intended meaning
- Abbreviations and symbols (e.g. CD5, DT, SLS) used in the BNF
- Drug management of medical emergencies in the community
- Resuscitation Council (UK) adult advanced life support algorithm
- Table showing mean values for weight, height and gender by age
- Approximate weight conversion chart
- Non-medical prescribing
- Nurse Prescribers’ Formulary
- Dental Practitioners’ Formulary
- What cautionary and advisory labels are required for dispensed medicines
- Wound management products and elasticated garments
- Borderline substances – ACBS
- Intravenous additives
- Drug interactions
- Drugs in pregnancy
- Drugs in breast-feeding
- Prescribing in renal impairment
- Prescribing in hepatic impairment
- Drugs and driving
- Reporting of suspected adverse drug reactions through the Yellow Card Scheme
- MHRA/CHM advice
- Prescribing for children
- Palliative care prescribing
- Drug prescribing for the elderly
- Prescribing in dental practice
- Drugs and sport
- Treatment of poisoning e.g. paracetamol poisoning treatment graph
- Sugar-free oral liquid preparations
- Extemporaneous preparation
- Oral syringes
- EEA prescriptions
- Patient group direction (PGD)
- Emergency supply of medicines
- Prescription requirements for controlled drugs
- Classification of controlled drugs by schedule
- Low Na+antacids
- Regimens for Helicobacter pylori eradication
- Prescribing for patients with a stoma
- Classification of anti-arrhythmic drugs
- Thresholds and targets for the treatment of hypertension
- Indications and target INRs for warfarin
- Management of stable angina, NSTEMI and STEMI
- Management of acute and chronic asthma based on recommendations from the British Thoracic Society and SIGN
- Use of inhaled therapies in COPD based on NICE recommendations
- Anaphylaxis and angioedema treatment
- IM adrenaline (epinephrine) dose for the emergency treatment of anaphylaxis
- Standard and high dose inhaled corticosteroids
- Treatment of croup
- Equivalent doses of benzodiazepines
- Equivalent doses of oral and depot antipsychotics
- Status epilepticus
- Notifiable diseases
- Summary of antibacterial therapy and prophylaxis
- Tuberculosis treatment
- Prophylaxis against malaria
- HbA1c equivalent values
- Drivers with diabetes
- Equivalent anti-inflammatory doses of corticosteroids
- HRT risk table
- Prescribing drugs for G6PD-deficient individuals
- Electrolyte concentrations—IV fluids
- Electrolyte content—gastrointestinal secretions
- Electrolyte concentrations—infusion fluids for parenteral feeding
- Drugs unsafe for use in patients with acute porphyrias
- Excipients in eye drops
- Suitable quantities of dermatological and corticosteroid preparations to be prescribed for specific areas of the body
- Suitable quantities of parasiticidal preparations for the treatment of head lice, scabies and crab lice
- Excipients in topical preparations that may be associated with sensitisation
- Immunisation schedule
- Surgery and long-term medication
- The iron content of different iron salts
- Phenylketonuria
- Conversion from oral morphine to transdermal fentanyl
- Giving patient advice on a medicine
- Examples of biological and biosimilar medicines
- Allergy and cross-sensitivity to medicines
- Handling and storage requirements of medicines
Please note this list is not intended to be a complete list of all the topics/subjects covered in the BNF.
