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Evaluation and Innovations

GP trainee prescribing assessment – a qualitative evaluation of the involvement of pharmacists

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Pages 221-228 | Received 15 Sep 2021, Accepted 18 Dec 2021, Published online: 23 Jan 2022
 

ABSTRACT

In 2019, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) introduced a mandatory workplace-based prescribing assessment for general practice trainees in their final year of training (GPST3). This assessment aimed to improve the quality of prescribing and reduce prescribing errors and it did not require pharmacist involvement. NHS Education for Scotland (NES) is the education and training body for NHS Scotland: delivering postgraduate training for GP trainees working in NHS Scotland. NES wished to evaluate the role that general practice pharmacists could have in this assessment.

A training event for pharmacists was designed and delivered by the researchers in collaboration with the NES pharmacy team. Pharmacists attached to training practices in the West region of Scotland, where a GPST3 was undertaking the prescribing assessment, were invited to attend. The training described the prescribing assessment and the value that pharmacists could add to this workplace-based assessment. The evaluation aimed to explore the role of appropriately trained pharmacists in the prescribing assessment and their feedback to GP trainees, and evaluate the impact pharmacists had by exploring the views of GP trainers, GP trainees and pharmacists.

Results showed that the intervention was viewed as a positive educational experience for all participants, and the interprofessional approach broadened the learning experience for GP trainees. We believe this to be innovative work replicable to primary healthcare colleagues to promote prescribing safety and interprofessional learning with pharmacy colleagues.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all research participants for taking part in the interviews and the Directors of Pharmacy in participating NHS boards in Scotland for enabling pharmacists to be involved. We are grateful for the assistance of Rachel Bruce and Ailsa MacDonald from NES pharmacy in delivering the pharmacist training sessions. The authors thank Alan Gillies from NES Digital for assistance with the literature search, and to NES administrative staff for preparing the transcripts.

Disclosure statement

All authors are employed by NHS Education for Scotland.

Ethical approval

As this was a review of education service provision, formal ethical approval from the NHS Research Ethics Service was not required. This was confirmed by the Research Ethics Service.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

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