Impact of a focussed teaching programme on practical prescribing skills among final year medical students.

ABSTRACT:

What is already known about this subject

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.

What this study adds

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.

Aim

To assess the impact of prescribing teaching on final year medical students.

Methods

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.

Results

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.

Conclusion

Medical students make significant errors in prescribing. Teaching improves ability and confidence but is insufficient alone in eradicating errors.

SUBMITTER: Sandilands EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3018023 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature