Search

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT • Junior doctors feel poorly prepared by their training in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and commonly make prescribing errors. • Since 1993 the General Medical Council's guidance on undergraduate medical education ‘Tomorrow's Doctors’ has emphasized the integration of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics teaching within the medical curriculum. • With the publication of a new version of Tomorrow's Doctors in 2009, medical schools will be further revising their Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics teaching. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS • Although we know what the recommendations for undergraduate teaching of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics teaching are, there are no published data describing what is currently happening in UK medical schools. • This paper describes the course structures, volume and range of teaching and assessment of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics in the UK in 2009. • Our data provide a foundation for schools looking to revise the Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics Teaching in the light of Tomorrow's Doctors 2009. AIM To describe the current structure, delivery and assessment of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (CPT) teaching in UK medical schools. METHODS An online questionnaire was distributed to the person with overall responsibility for CPT teaching at all UK medical schools in June 2009. RESULTS Thirty of the 32 UK medical schools responded. 60% of schools have a CPT course although in 72% this was an integrated vertical theme. At 70% of schools pharmacologists have overall responsibility for CPT teaching (clinical 67%, non-clinical 33%); at 20% teaching is run by a non-specialist clinician and at 7% by a pharmacist. Teaching is commonly delivered by NHS clinicians (87%) and clinical pharmacists (80%) using lectures (90%) but additionally 50% of schools use e-Learning and 63% have a student formulary. CPT is assessed throughout the curriculum at many schools through written, practical examinations and course work. 90% of schools have specific CPT content in their written examinations. 90% of respondents believed that their students were ‘fairly’ to ‘well’ prepared for the foundation year but only 37% of schools gather data on the competence of their graduates. CONCLUSIONS CPT teaching in UK medical schools is very diverse. Most schools do not assess the performance of their graduates as prescribers and there is a lack of evidence that many of the teaching approaches employed are suitable for the development of prescribing skills. It is vital that developments in CPT teaching are driven by validated, real-world assessments of the prescribing skills of medical students and newly qualified doctors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decade has seen developments in nonmedical prescribing, with the introduction of prescribing rights for healthcare professionals. In this article, we focus on the education, training and practice of nonmedical prescribers in the UK. There are around 20 000 nurse independent prescribers, 2400 pharmacist supplementary/independent prescribers, several hundred allied health professional supplementary prescribers and almost 100 optometrist supplementary/independent prescribers. Many are active prescribers, managing chronic conditions or acute episodes of infections and minor ailments. Key aims of nonmedical prescribing are as follows: to improve patient care; to increase patient choice in accessing medicines; and to make better use of the skills of health professionals. Education and training are provided by higher education institutions accredited by UK professional bodies/regulators,namely, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, General Pharmaceutical Council, Health Professions Council and General Optical Council. The programme comprises two main components: a university component equivalent to 26 days full-time education and a period of learning in practice of 12 days minimum under the supervision of a designated medical practitioner. Course content focuses on the following factors: consultation, decision making, assessment and review; psychology of prescribing; prescribing in team context; applied therapeutics; evidence-based practice and clinical governance; legal, policy, professional and ethical aspects; and prescribing in the public health context. Nonmedical prescribers must practise within their competence, demonstrating continuing professional development to maintain the quality engendered during training. Despite the substantial progress, there are several issues of strategy, capacity, sustainability and a research evidence base which require attention to fully integrate nonmedical prescribing within healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK postgraduate curriculum in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics (CPT) incorporates the common competencies required of all physicians and shows how trainees from other specialties, including primary care, can train in CPT. Various models of training and assessment are possible. Evolution of the current system to meet new challenges would maintain an established tradition, with a ready source of training funds. However, this would require greater input from all consultants in CPT, including the training and assessment of trainees. A joint venture with the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine would have the advantage, if the Faculty agreed, of introducing ready-made curriculum modules and assessment tools that have been accepted by the General Medical Council. However, extra modules relevant to CPT would have to be constructed to complement the common areas already in the pharmaceutical medicine curriculum, and there would be a perceived loss of the independence that clinical pharmacologists currently enjoy when making decisions about manufacturers' products. Abandoning externally approved training in CPT would allow the specialty to devise its own training and assessment in the necessary skills. Critically, however, this would impair the status of the specialty and would incur loss of financial support from postgraduate Deaneries. To attract high-calibre trainees, we must completely define CPT training and assessment structures. Most clinical pharmacologists seem to prefer to allow the current structures to evolve under external guidance. However, this will not succeed unless all trained clinical pharmacologists contribute to development of both the curriculum and specific assessment tools, and open their teaching and assessment skills to scrutiny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• 8.9% medication orders written by doctors contain prescribing errors, which are made by all grades of doctor from foundation year 1 to consultant. • Recommendations to improve prescribing safety include continuing education from medical school to retirement, as well as improvement of NHS systems. • Priority areas for education in prescribing with potential to have impact on prescribing errors have not previously been identified. • This study has identified 100 drugs most commonly prescribed in primary and secondary care and shown that these drugs are those most frequently associated with prescribing errors. • This core drug list has potential to direct prescribing training for both undergraduate and postgraduate prescribers as part of a national strategy to reduce prescribing errors. To develop a core list of 100 commonly prescribed drugs to support prescribing education. A retrospective analysis of prescribing data from primary care in England (2006 and 2008) and from two London Teaching Hospitals (2007 and 2009) was performed. A survey of prescribing by foundation year 1 (FY1) doctors in 39 NHS Trusts across London was carried out. A core list of 100 commonly prescribed drugs comprising ≥0.1% prescriptions in primary and/or secondary care was developed in 2006/7. The core list remained stable over 2 years. FY1 doctors prescribed 65% drugs on the list at least monthly. Seventy-six% of FY1 doctors did not regularly prescribe any drugs not on the core list. There was a strong correlation between prescribing frequency (prescriptions for each drug class expressed as percentage of all prescriptions written) and error rate described in the EQUIP study (errors made when prescribing each drug class expressed as a percentage of all errors made), n= 39, r= 0.861, P= 0.000. Our core drug list identifies drugs that are commonly used and associated with error and is stable over at least 2 years. This list can now be used to develop learning resources and training programmes to improve prescribing of drugs in regular use. Complementary skills required for prescribing less familiar drugs must be developed in parallel. Ongoing research is required to monitor the effect of new training initiatives on prescribing error and patient safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Medication errors, and particularly prescribing errors, are common in UK hospitals. • Junior doctors make the majority of prescribing errors. • Deficiencies in prescribing education and training have been closely linked to the high frequency of medication errors. • Focussed prescribing teaching can lead to an improvement in prescribing ability. • Prescribing confidence can be significantly improved through education. • Education is insufficient alone in eradicating prescribing errors. To assess the impact of prescribing teaching on final year medical students. Students randomly allocated to two hospitals completed a prescribing assessment. Prescribing teaching was delivered to the intervention group while no additional teaching was provided for the control group. All students then completed a second prescribing assessment. Teaching improved the assessment score: mean assessment 2 vs. 1, 70% vs. 62%, P= 0.007; allergy documentation: 98% vs. 74%, P= 0.0001; and confidence. However, 30% of prescriptions continued to include prescribing errors. Medical students make significant errors in prescribing. Teaching improves ability and confidence but is insufficient alone in eradicating errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a pressing need for medical graduates to be fully prepared to take on the responsibilities of prescribing and to be able to respond to continual inevitable rapid changes in therapeutics. The curricula in UK medical schools were greatly influenced by Tomorrow's Doctors, published by the General Medical Council in 1993. This has recently been updated. While it highlights the management of disease and use of drugs as key learning objectives, it offers little specific guidance. In this document we expand on these broad statements, provide a view of how these learning objectives might be achieved, and identify the key elements of a core curriculum in prescribing and therapeutics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]