Course Details in 2027/28 Session

Module Title	LH Prescribing Safety Assessment
School	Institute of Clinical Sciences
Department	Birmingham Medical School
Module Code	01 28362
Module Lead	Dr Sarah Pontefract
Level	Honours Level
Credits	0
Semester	Full Term
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Exclusions
Description	The Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA) is a summative assessment of the skills, judgment and supporting knowledge related to prescribing medicines in the NHS. The assessment assesses the prescribing safety of final year medical students and is based on the competencies identified by the General Medical Council outlined in Tomorrow’s Doctors (2009). These competencies include 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. The content of each item will be relevant to the prescribing tasks expected of an newly qualified (F1) doctor, i.e. the questions will refer to ailments and drugs that graduates are likely to be dealing with in year one of the Foundation Programme.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the component students should be able to: Elicit and record an accurate medication history, including current and recent medicines, drug allergies and sensitivities, to support effective medicines reconciliation. Describe the effect of common disease states on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics Understand pharmacovigilance and be able to recognise and report suspected Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) and medication errors - Complete a ‘Yellow Card’ Prescribe drugs safely, effectively and cost-effectively, considering: - Therapeutic objective(s) for any new therapy - Legal and good practice requirements - Cautions and contraindications - Drug-drug (or drug-food) interactions - Clinical guidelines, protocols and formularies where appropriate - Safety of high-risk medicines including opiates, anticoagulants, insulin, antibiotics and intravenous fluids Prescribe drugs safely, effectively and cost-effectively, considering: Interpret data that are relevant to prescribing decisions (e.g. renal function, drug concentrations) Review current lists of prescribed medicines - Identify and correct prescription writing errors - Identify and manage inappropriate prescribing Use reputable electronic resources for information about prescribing and therapeutics: - British National Formulary (BNF) - Electronic Medicines Compendium (eMC) - Toxbase (www.toxbase.org) Calculate drug doses - Calculate appropriate doses for individual patients by weight and body surface area, and using a nomogram - Convert doses between common units, and convert between concentrations expressed as percentage, ratios and mass Be able to administer drugs - by intravenous, intramuscular, and subcutaneous injections, as well as by inhalation (inhaler, nebuliser) and local application (eye, ear, skin) Be able to explain to patients how they should take or administer their medicines, and important information they should know about these (e.g. adverse effects), engaging in shared decision making where appropriate
Assessment
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: Students are assessed for their competence in prescribing using a 2 hour computer-based “Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA)”. This is a nationally available computer-delivered examination, and consists of 60 items. Reassessment: The PSA exam is run externally and may be redone in the manner described in point 23. Two sits are possible prior to main examination board. A third sit in the case of ECs is possible prior to supplementary board
Other
Reading List