Improving prescribing learning in problem-based learning

Abstract

Background: Prescribing errors are known to occur in clinical practice. To ensure prescribing competence, foundation doctors in the United Kingdom now need to pass a national Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA). Medical students are requesting more prescribing learning. We propose that early year's problem-based learning (PBL) sessions in medical curricula may be a place where more prescribing-related material could be added to ensure preparedness to prescribe.

Approach: We modified existing PBL material by adding prescribing-related tasks within the patient cases. To ensure relevancy, the prescribing tasks were blueprinted to the assessment structure of the PSA. An example task would be to tailor prescribing, advise on required monitoring and provide information about medication to the (fictional) patients.

Evaluation: Free text questionnaires were sent to second-year medical students at two points in the academic year. Thirty-eight of 244 participants responded. Students expressed perceived deficits in their prescribing education both within PBL and in other curriculum areas. Students desired more faculty-led approaches to learning, yet acknowledged that the tasks introduced in PBL sessions, especially those that promoted use of clinical guidelines and national prescribing resources were useful.

Implications: Although students expressed a desire for increased faculty-led learning on prescribing, the introduction of prescribing tasks into early-year's PBL cases has a place. For example, tasks that promote students' use of prescribing and evidence-based resources may build their confidence in using them throughout their medical degree and within the PSA assessment (where the formularies can be used by candidates).