Final-year students report low confidence in prescription writing and feel underprepared for prescribing¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · associational r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 2018 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2023: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? In a survey of 2413 UK medical students graduating 2006–2008, only 38% felt confident about prescription writing and 74% felt there was (far) too little teaching. → Brinkman 2018 q2 i? In a study of 65 UK medical graduates, 73–80% felt generally underprepared for prescribing and only 16–19% passed the prescribing safety assessment at the first attempt. → Brinkman 2018 (2)

Evidence¶

Brinkman 2018¶

Brinkman, D. J., Tichelaar, J., Graaf, S., Otten, R. H. J., Richir, M. C., and van Agtmael, M. A. (2018). Do final‐year medical students have sufficient prescribing competencies? A systematic literature review. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.13491

q2 · i? · review · r3

Cross-sectional online survey of 2413 UK medical students graduating 2006–2008 (Heaton et al., 25 medical schools), reported in the review's Table 2. Only 38% felt confident about prescription writing; 74% felt teaching was (far) too little.

"Only 38% felt confident about prescription writing and 35% had filled in a hospital prescription chart more than three times during training. 74% felt that there was (far) too little teaching and 56% disagreed that their assessment thoroughly tested knowledge and skills"

Brinkman 2018 (2)¶

Brinkman, D. J., Tichelaar, J., Graaf, S., Otten, R. H. J., Richir, M. C., and van Agtmael, M. A. (2018). Do final‐year medical students have sufficient prescribing competencies? A systematic literature review. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.13491

q2 · i? · associational · r1

Single-group study of 65 UK medical graduates using interviews, questionnaires and secondary prescribing safety assessment data (Rothwell et al.), as reported in the review's Table 2.

"73–80% of the graduates felt generally underprepared for prescribing. Only 16–19% of the graduates passed the prescribing safety assessment at the first attempt"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Students lack knowledge of and confidence in appropriate antimicrobial prescribing, and most want more training in rational antibiotic selection
• Final-year students lack pharmacovigilance competencies, particularly knowledge of adverse drug reaction reporting
• Final-year medical students show a general lack of preparedness, self-confidence, knowledge and skills for prescribing, especially in general and antimicrobial prescribing and pharmacovigilance