Impact of Pharmacist-Led Prescription Writing Intervention on Undergraduate Medical Students

Abstract

Background: Prescribing errors present a critical concern in practice where junior doctors initiate the majority of prescriptions. Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the impact of pharmacist-led educational intervention provided to undergraduate medical students on the appropriateness and self-perceived readiness to prescribe medications. Methods: This pharmacist-led pre-and-post-intervention study included female undergraduate medical students enrolled in the prescription practice course between Oct 19 and Nov 15 2022, at King Fahad University Hospital in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. The course involved three main domains: a pre-module assessment, formal training in the principles of prescription writing, and a post-module assessment. The pre-module assessment was designed to assess the students’ ability to write a prescription for a given patient scenario. After that, formal training in the principles of prescription writing was conducted, which highlighted the elements of prescription writing based on World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for good prescription. Finally, the post-module assessment was utilized to evaluate the knowledge the students gained during the session, asking them to re-write a prescription for the same patient scenario. Results: This study assessed one hundred twenty-four students before and after writing the prescription course. The mean score and standard deviation before the course were 8.65±2.362, and they significantly improved after the course. Their mean score after the course was 14.2±0.988 (P-value <0.001). Conclusion: The pharmacist-led prescription writing intervention for undergraduate medical students has improved their skills, knowledge, and confidence. Thus, this supports incorporating prescription writing into undergraduate medical students’ education with pharmacist involvement.