| dc.description.abstract | Aims: the prevalence of prescribing errors are common, especially among junior doctors.
Undergraduate master students acquire few opportunities to prescribe medication during their
studies. The implementation of an embedded Student-run-clinic (SRC) offers the opportunity for
medical student to practice their prescribing skills in a safe environment. The aim of this study was to
examine the impact of participation in SRC on medical students' attitudes towards and academic
performance in pharmacotherapy.
Methods: this was a retrospective cohort study among first-year medical students at Erasmus Medical
Centre, The Netherlands. The amount of errors, type of errors, and impact of these errors made in the
skill-based formative assessment were analyzed. Secondly, the percentage scores within different
subcategories (A-L) from the National Dutch Pharmacotherapy assessment (NDPA) were analyzed.
Lastly, medical students were asked about their attitude towards and confidence in pharmacotherapy
through online survey questionnaires.
Results: In the skill-based formative assessment no significant difference was observed in the amount
of errors, type of errors and its consequence between the SRC and non-SRC group. The SCR group
made less opium law errors (9.4%) and prescribed amount errors (20%) compared to the non-SRC
group. 7.6% more SRC students passed the National Dutch pharmacotherapy assessment on their first
attempt than non-SRC students and scored on average a higher percentage in the following 8/12
categories: pain medication (A), cardiovascular (C), antidepressants ( E) , benzodiazepines (F),
antibiotics (G), pharmacokinetic (H), drug allergy (I) and good use of medicines (K). This difference was
significant for pain medication (A) and benzodiazepines (F) ( p = <0.05). The survey questionnaires
revealed that SRC students prescribed more often during internships in the beginning of their master
year compared to non-SRC students. In addition, the SCR-group showed a consequent increase in
scores over the duration of the year, but this is not the case for the non-SRC group.
Conclusion: In short, SRC offers an opportunity for medical students to learn how to prescribe
medication safely at their 'own' outpatient polyclinic. Although SRC is a great learning experience for
students. The question is whether this learning experience can be quantitatively determined by means
of assessments. | |
