Exploring the utility of the Prescribing Safety Assessment in pharmacy education in England: experiences of pre-registration trainees and undergraduate (MPharm) pharmacy students.

Jessica Hardisty,Louise Statham,Lynne Bollington,Kathryn Davison,Gail Fleming,Simon Maxwell

doi:10.1111/ijpp.12479

Abstract

(i) To provide a preliminary indication of the performance of pharmacy undergraduate students and pre-registration pharmacy trainees in the Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA). (ii) To determine the feasibility of administering and delivering the PSA in schools of pharmacy. (iii) To examine the potential relevance of the PSA and associated training materials to pharmacy education. (iv) To assess the attitudes of the cohort towards the PSA and their readiness to prescribe. Four schools of pharmacy in England recruited final year undergraduate pharmacy students and pre-registration pharmacy trainees undertaking training with both hospital and community pharmacy employers in their locality to undertake the PSA. Performance data and feedback from candidates were obtained. Pre-registration pharmacy trainees in community (n = 27) and hospital (n = 209) settings mean average scores were 86.3% and 85.3%, respectively. There was a significant performance differential between undergraduate pharmacy students (n = 397) and those in pre-registration training, with the mean average score for undergraduate students being 73.0% (t test P < 0.05). Candidates felt their current course did prepare them for the PSA, some highlighted that additional curriculum content would be needed should this become a compulsory high-stakes assessment for pharmacy trainees. The majority of candidates felt that this assessment was useful and applicable to their training. The PSA process and associated learning tools could be introduced to pre-registration pharmacy education to support trainees in their development towards future prescribing roles.

Highlights

Prescribing medicines is a core activity for the UK National Health Service
Assessments were run between 25 April 2016 and 19 May 2016 on 4 dates; dates were agreed by the Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA) team and Universities with the aim being to limit the numbers of dates used
The PSA is based on the competencies identified in the General Medical Council’s Outcomes for graduates, such as writing new prescriptions, reviewing existing prescriptions, calculating drug doses, identifying and avoiding both adverse drug reactions and medication errors and amending prescribing to suit individual patient circumstances

Summary

Introduction

Prescribing medicines is a core activity for the UK National Health Service. Around 1 billion prescriptions are written annually in primary care in England and Wales, equating to an average of 18 for every member of the population.[1] doctors currently write the vast majority of prescriptions in the UK, other professional groups, including pharmacists, are able to undertake further training and supervised practice in order to become independent prescribers.[2]. Prescribing is a challenging task for any healthcare professional. Prescribers have to select the correct medicine, dosage, route and frequency of administration, sometimes in the face of diagnostic uncertainty, taking into account potential individual variability in drug handling and response as a consequence of co-morbidity, genetics and interacting drugs.[3] Given that individual patients have different wishes, and the outcome of any prescription is uncertain, the prescriber needs to counsel the patient and published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Pharmaceutical Society

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Conclusion