ABSTRACT
This study was undertaken to collect and evaluate the types of pharmacotherapy recommendations made by Pharm.D. students at the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy assigned to a general medicine clerkship. Objectives of the study were to: (i) teach pharmacy students how to identify, document, solve, and prevent medication-related problems; (ii) document the number and types of recommendations made by Pharm.D. students to physicians; (iii) determine the acceptance rate of these suggestions by the physicians; and (iv) determine the potential impact of students' recommendations on patient care. Each student was responsible for preventing or resolving patient medication-related problems, providing drug therapy information, and making appropriate pharmacotherapy recommendations. Approximately 90% of the recommendations were accepted by the general medicine team. Improper medication selection (28.7%) and untreated indications (21.3%) accounted for the majority of medication-related problems. The most frequently accepted pharmacotherapy recommendations involved anti-infective (28.7%), cardiovascular (18.1%), and gastrointestinal (17.0%) medications. Using Hatoum's criteria for assessing potential impact on patient care, approximately 70% of the accepted recommendations were judged to have a significant (59.6%) or very significant (10.6%) potential impact on patient outcomes. An average impact score of 2.08 was achieved. Future studies are needed to help develop innovative, reliable, and valid methodologies for teaching pharmacy students how to identify, document, solve, and prevent medication-related problems.