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Assessing prescribing competence
John Mucklow1, Lynne Bollington, Simon Maxwell
1Prescribing Skills Assessment Office, British Pharmacological Society, London, UK. j.mucklow@prescribe.ac.uk
British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
|November 26, 2011
Summary
Assessing doctors' prescribing competence is crucial for patient safety. An online Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is proposed as a valid method to evaluate these essential skills in medical training.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Clinical Pharmacy
- Patient Safety
Background:
- Prescribing medications is a core clinical skill for physicians.
- Recent surveys indicate a lack of confidence in prescription writing among graduating medical students.
- Effective assessment of prescribing competence is vital for clinical governance and patient safety.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the challenges in assessing prescribing competence.
- To advocate for an online Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) as a valid assessment tool.
- To outline the requirements for developing and implementing such an assessment.
Main Methods:
- Literature review on prescribing competence assessment.
- Discussion of the challenges in measuring clinical prescribing performance.
- Proposal for an online OSCE model.
Main Results:
- Lack of confidence in prescribing skills is prevalent among junior doctors.
- Existing assessment methods may not accurately reflect real-world prescribing ability.
- An online OSCE is identified as a promising approach for a reliable assessment.
Conclusions:
- A dedicated assessment for prescribing competence is needed.
- An online OSCE offers a structured and valid method to evaluate these skills.
- Development of a national online OSCE for UK medical undergraduates is underway.
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