Workshop on Prescribing Skills

About the Workshop

Medicines are the major tool used by healthcare systems to treat and prevent illness. However, there is clear evidence from around the world of sub-optimal use of medicines leading to poor clinical outcomes, avoidable adverse drug reactions, medication errors and wastage of scarce resources.

The South Asian College of American College of Clinical Pharmacology, in collaboration with the British Pharmacological Society, has organized a one day workshop on prescribing as a part of 10th annual SAC-ACCP conference (PCW-1) on Friday, April 2020 in Mumbai.

The workshop will look at all aspects of training and assessing healthcare professionals as they prepare to undertake their roles as users of medicines in an increasingly complex environment. It will look to draw on experiences in India and the UK specifically and consider how we might plan for future improvements in Indian medical education.

Learning objectives:

At the end of the workshop, the participants shall be able to:

Describe some of the current shortcomings in prescribing practices in India, and at global level, and appreciate the need for prescribing skill training
Recognise the key components in skill learning and assessment
Select appropriate teaching and learning methods for prescribing skills
Be aware of some of important improvements in prescribing education introduced in the UK in recent years, notably the Prescribing Skills Assessment (PSA)
Gather hands on experience of developing case scenarios and questions to assess various prescribing skills
Recommend how the symposium experiences can be applied in the teaching of various healthcare professions (e.g. medicine, pharmacy, and nursing).
Evolve applications of the online PSA model for use within the medical curriculum of Indian medical schools

Introduction Welcome address Introduction of facilitators/participants Description of the workshop objectives
Current challenges in prescribing Indian Scenario Global Scenario:WHO perspective Global Scenario: UK experience
Training pathways for prescribers Skill training and assessment Designing learning experiences for prescribing skills
Prescribing Skills Assessment Background, purpose, blueprint, development, quality assurance, medical school and student feedback,results and impact
Discussion topic groups (6–8)
• What are the main prescribing education challenges in India?
• What are the current assessment strategies in India to ensure that new and existing prescribers are competent?
• Is there a clear agreement about the knowledge and skills expected of Indian prescribers?
• Should there be an Indian medical student formulary (a limited list of medicines for learners)?
• Should there be an Indian national learning resource in clinical pharmacology and prescribing?
• Should there be an Indian national prescribing skills assessment?
• What role might pharmacists play in collaborating in these activities? Group feedback (20 minutes)

Prescribing assessment questions Participants will all have been asked to prepare some example question items prior to the meeting These will be presented with feedback with the aim of highlighting some of the quality
assurance steps that are necessary to ensure that good quality items are produced
- The way forward Future pilot PSA events Plans for educational resources Action points

Who should attend?

Faculty from disciplines of pharmacology, clinical pharmacology, physicians and surgeons from teaching institutions, faculty of Pharmacy (Pharmacology division), postgraduate students of pharmacology, clinical pharmacology, medicine/surgery and allied disciplines, MPharm (Pharmacology), members of curriculum committee, MEU members.