Teaching medication reconciliation through simulation: a patient safety initiative for second year medical students

Errors in medication reconciliation constitute a large area of potential injury to patients. Medication reconciliation is rarely incorporated into medical school curriculums so students learn primarily from observing clinical care.

To design and implement an interactive learning exercise to teach second year medical students about medication reconciliation

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: The Medication Reconciliation Simulation teaches medical students how to elicit information from active real-world sources to reconcile a medication history.

At the conclusion of the session, students completed a Likert scale survey rating the level of improvement in their knowledge and comfort in obtaining medication histories. Students rated their knowledge level as having increased by 27% and their comfort level as having increased by 20%. A full 91% of the 158 students felt that it should be performed again for the following medical student class.

The Medication Reconciliation Simulation is the first to specifically target medication reconciliation as a curriculum topic for medical students. Students praised the entertaining simulation and felt it provided a very meaningful experience on the patient safety topic. This simulation is generalizable to other institutions interested in teaching medication reconciliation and improving medication safety.