Generally, information that is directly related to the safety and effectiveness of the drug should be given priority. I try my best to ensure that all information on this blog is accurate and up-to-date. However, this cannot always be guaranteed. For example, if there is any latest information, I cannot update that on my blog immediately as it takes some time for me to do so. In this section, you will not have time to look up side effects or interactions for every drug listed. Therefore, having a good understanding of basic prescribing errors will help you save time in the exam. The Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA) is a pass/fail assessment of the skills, judgment and supporting knowledge related to prescribing medicines in the NHS. The PSA assesses the prescribing skills of final-year medical students and is based on the competencies identified by the General Medical Council outlined in Outcomes for graduates (originally published in Tomorrow's Doctors). These competencies include writing new prescriptions, reviewing existing prescriptions, calculating drug doses, identifying and avoiding both adverse drug reactions and medication errors and amending prescribing to suit individual patient circumstances. The content of each item is relevant to the prescribing tasks expected of an F1 doctor, i.e. the questions refer to ailments and drugs that graduates are likely to be dealing with in year one of the Foundation Programme. Each answer is composed of several variables (drug description (including form and strength), dose, route & frequency) and therefore, a correct answer can be expressed in a variety of ways, depending on the product selected. Due to the breadth of possible answers, some credit-worthy variations may not be included in a given mark scheme and recognised by the auto-scoring system.

PSA) - Mind The Bleep Passing the Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA) - Mind The Bleep

In most cases, you should prescribe a drug using its generic name, unless if only its brand name is the approved name. Do not prescribe any non-pharmacological treatment.Use split screen during the exam – one screen for the PSA exam and one for BNF/Medicines complete. This saves time having to constantly switch between screens PSA questions are predominantly based on information that can be found within the BNF. This includes: drug dose, drug route, drug frequency, side effects, adjustments in renal impairment, monitoring requirements and so on. It has a wealth of information beyond simply drug dosing, including interactions and treatment summaries. This section will task you with selecting the most suitable plan of monitoring for either beneficial or harmful effects of a newly started medication. Each question has 10 marks available (5 for the drug choice and 5 for the choice of dose/route/frequency). It is also considered best practice for all F2 stand-alone doctors to undertake and pass the PSA. Any F2 doctor who has not passed the PSA before starting work is encouraged to undertake the exam during their F2 year.

Prescribing Safety Assessment

After finishing the practice questions, find out if your answer for each question is correct. You should understand the reasoning behind every correct or wrong answer. Based on the information provided, you have to decide whether to stop a drug, decrease the dose, increase the dose, prescribe another drug or make no changes. You will be asked to determine: the most common or most serious side-effect of a drug, which drug is most likely responsible for an ADR, potential drug interactions, and management of an ADR.You need to know the management guidelines for the more common conditions. Important guidelines are those that can be found in the books, and you should look up the internet for the most up-to-date version of those guidelines. Some guidelines are available in the BNF. After that, revise all important conditions in the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine, Oxford Handbook of Clinical Specialties and the textbooks for the specialties. Your main focus should be on pharmacological management, but diagnosis, investigations and non-pharmacological management are important too.

for the Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA) Top Tips for the Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA)

When titrating drugs, for example, thyroxine to get TSH in range, you should usually make the smallest increment change possible. In the real assessment, the post-assessment review process considers every unrecognised answer and all credit-worthy answers are added to the mark scheme to enable marks to be credited.

There will be 2 fluid prescribing questions – learn how much fluid a patient is likely to need for resuscitation, rehydration and maintenance, and which fluids to use. The treatment summaries can help in this section if you are not sure what drug should be used. However, having a good basic understanding of most conditions allows you to focus on looking up the appropriate drug based on your prior understanding which helps save time. Allthebestandmakesureyoufinishit!Likepreviouslysaidonthisthread,theaveragefor2sessionswerearound56and62fortheotherpaper.Itmightnotbeaslowforthenextsitting For acute conditions, ABCDE is usually the first step of management. If there is an answer choice involving ABCDE, it should be the answer. You should treat the PSA like the final examinations of your medical school. You need to revise your clinical knowledge for the PSA as not all information is available in the BNF. This also reduces the need to refer to the BNF during the PSA, which saves time.