Design of hospital errors and omissions activities that include patient-specific medication related problems

Medication-related problems persist in hospital settings. New types of errors have emerged with changing technology. There is a need for updated, realistic, and patient-specific activities to train student pharmacists to identify medication-related problems.

We describe efforts to redesign hospital errors and omissions activities in a clinical skills lab course. A hospital errors and omissions template is described with multiple-choice answer options redesigned to reinforce that each instance of dispensing in a hospital is an opportunity for patient-centered care.

In the redesigned hospital errors and omissions activities, students identified the correct errors and omissions 77% of the time with an average point biserial of 0.491. Qualitative evaluation of student course evaluations and student self-selected learning goals suggest that students perceived the revised activity to be valuable.

It is possible to create and deliver hospital errors and omissions activities that include patient-specific medication related problems.