The process of preparing and issuing drugs or drug mixtures from a pharmaceutical outlet or department.

Typically the process involves:

(a) receiving a prescription from a duly qualified prescriber (doctor, dentist, optometrist, in some states, podiatrists, or veterinary surgeons) with sufficient information to be able to properly identify the individual patient and to dispense it safely;

(b) determining the prescriber's intentions as to the patient's medicines;

(c) making full records of all aspects of the dispensing according to the requirements of the law;

(d) reviewing the medication history of the patient to ensure that the medicine is safe and proper for the patient to use and that all relevant other considerations of the patient's wellbeing including the use of non-prescription and complementary medicine are taken into account;

(e) selecting or preparing the product intended by the prescriber and placing the final dose form in a suitable container;

(f) clearly labelling the container of the medicine with the directions for its use as intended by the prescriber along with any other information that is desirable (e.g. cautionary/advisory labels) to encourage its proper, safe and effective use;

(g) carefully checking and rechecking all dispensing procedures for accuracy and completeness;

(h) counselling the patient, or the patient's agent, sufficiently to allow a proper understanding of all the information required by the patient to use the medicine safely and effectively and to motivate the patient to comply with that advice;

(i) supplying the patient with a consumer medication information leaflet as an adjunct to counselling;

(j) ensuring that the entire dispensing process has been undertaken according to good pharmacy practice, and accepting that responsibility by placing the pharmacist's initials or signature in the prescription records of the pharmacy and any other place according to law.

The process of dispensing also includes supplying.