The collaboration between BPS Assessment and the MHRA Safer Medicines in Pregnancy and Breastfeeding Consortium has resulted in a brand new eLearning resource for healthcare professionals.
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We are pleased to share this press release from Gulf Medical University.
Pharmacy professionals play a vital role in delivering care and helping patients maintain and improve their health, safety and wellbeing. Patients and the public have a right to be prescribed safe and effective medications. Historically, pharmacist contribution to medication safety was focused on dispensing, Now, their roles have expanded as medication therapy has increased in complexity. While pharmacists have contributed to patient safety over the years as part of their many job-related responsibilities, they now recognize and embrace their unique training, which positions them to greatly impact patient safety through the global evaluation and improvement of medication safety processes.
For the first time in the Middle East region, GMU pharmacy students are undergoing training to enhance medication safety at the individual patient level through medication management skills, monitor outcomes and initiate efforts to mitigate drug-related outcomes that may cause harm. They participated in a yearlong training program during their Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) and completed a prescribing skills assessment. This was enabled by an academic collaboration between the British Pharmacological Society Assessment and GMU which resulted in a benchmarking exercise for GMU pharmacy education outcomes including prescribing skills against international standards.
Dr. Sherief Khalifa, Vice Chancellor for Quality & Global Engagement and Dean College of Pharmacy commented:
“We are proud of our partnership with the British Pharmacological Society Assessment. Through this partnership, our pharmacy graduates are enhancing their prescribing skills which reflects directly on patient medication safety.”
Dr. Sherief Khalifa
Contact the BPS Assessment team for more information on running the Prescribing Skills Assessment within your own institution.
We’ve been working with institutions all over the world throughout to help them deliver important education to their medical and pharmacy students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, one institution shares their experience of delivering the PSA remotely.
The University of South Wales in Sydney, Australia have been running the Prescribing Skills Assessment as a formative and mandatory assessment for their final year medical students since 2017. This year, the assessment was successfully conducted remotely, with over 280 students completing the exam using their own devices at home or an alternative suitable venue.
“Thank you to the team BPS Assessment Team and UNSW Medicine for enabling medical students to have the opportunity to sit the PSA exam remotely and safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
UNSW Medicine
Read more about the success of their remote sittings below, or contact us for more information on running the Prescribing Skills Assessment in your own institution.
A new prescribing skills partnership has been agreed between BPS Assessment Ltd (BPSA) and a Chinese training charity.
BPSA, the assessment and learning business of the British Pharmacological Society, and the Beijing Huatong Guokang Foundation (BHGF), a charity that supports Chinese organisations to organise overseas training, will be delivering a Prescribing Skills Workshop at Jesus College, University of Cambridge, on 16 August 2018. This will form part of the BHGF’s week-long Pharmacy Education Program in the UK.
The background to the workshop is the worldwide challenge of medication errors. The World Health Organization estimates the annual cost of medication errors to be over 42 billion USD, affecting every health system around the world. In the UK, the costs are estimated to be close to £100 million and 1,700 lives lost each year.
Among a number of areas covered by the workshop will be medication errors, adverse drug reactions, polypharmacy, and managing cost pressures. Delegates will sit a short online assessment to test their prescribing skills and receive certification. The workshop will be presented by BPS Assessment’s Medical Director, Professor Simon Maxwell MD PhD FRCP FRCPE FBPhS FHEA.
Ms Chen Ran, Chairwoman of Beijing Huatong Guokang Public Foundation and Director of the International Emergency Management Society Emergency Medical Committee (TEMC), said:
“This is a very timely collaboration given the great need for improved prescribing competency worldwide. Patients’ needs have become more complex and so have the prescribing decisions healthcare professionals face. An exchange of experience and knowledge between Chinese and UK healthcare leaders is to be greatly welcomed.”
Jonathan Brüün, Chief Executive of the British Pharmacological Society and Managing Director of BPS Assessment, said:
“We believe that by improving the knowledge and capabilities of prescribers we can make a significant contribution to reducing risk and improving patient safety. This workshop and its supporting online resources are our contribution to that aim.”
