Medication Safety: Experiential Learning for Pharmacy Students and Staff in a Hospital Setting

Abstract

Medication Safety has been an established pharmacy specialty in Australian hospitals since the early 2000s and is now one of the ten Australian hospital accreditation standards. Although advances have occurred, medication-related patient harm has not been eradicated. Victorian undergraduate pharmacy programs include some aspects of medication safety, however clinical pharmacy experience, along with interpersonal and project management skills, are required to prepare pharmacists to be confident medication safety practitioners. This article outlines the range of medication safety-related training offered at an Australian tertiary teaching hospital, including; on-site tutorial for undergraduate students, experiential placement for pharmacy interns, orientation for pharmacy staff and resources for credentialing pharmacists for extended roles. Improvements continue to be made, such as electronic medication management systems, which increase the safe use of medications and facilitate patient care. Implementation and evaluation of these systems require medication safety expertise. Patients’ engaging in their own care is an acknowledged safety improvement strategy and is enhanced by pharmacist facilitation. Building educator skills and integrating experiential teaching with university curricula should ensure pharmacists have both the knowledge and experience early in their careers, in order to have a leading role in future medication management.

The International Pharmacy Game: A Comparison of Implementation in Seven Universities World-Wide

“…Some evidence from a study comparing an educational game activity with an e-module on increasing the medication safety knowledge showed that both approaches reflected equivalent learning among the students [ 73 ]. Unlike the previous evidence, another study showed that integration of medication safety within educational tools for experiential teaching contributes to improved patient care [ 74 ]. Similarly, the Pharmacy Game involves various elements on medication safety.…”

Pharmacy students’ attitudes toward patient safety in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study

“…Studies have found that receiving education on patient safety is associated with improved medical students' patient safety knowledge, skills, and attitude [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. In addition, systematic reviews of published articles have found that many medical schools have adopted a wide range of educational methods to promote patient and medication safety [11,12].…”