Developing Medication Review Competency in Undergraduate Pharmacy Training: A Self-Assessment by Third-Year Students

Abstract

Pharmacists are increasingly involved in medication history taking, medication reconciliation, and review in their daily practice. The objectives of this study were to investigate third-year pharmacy students’ self-assessed competency in medication reviews and gather their feedback for further development of medication review training in their curriculum. The study was conducted as a self-assessment of third-year pharmacy students at the completion of their second three-month internship period in a community pharmacy in 2017–2018. The students were assigned to review medications of a real patient under the supervision of a medication review accredited pharmacist during their internship. The self-assessment was carried out via an e-form, which was created for this study. Recently established national medication review competence recommendations for pharmacists were used as a reference. Students (n = 95, participation rate: 93%) self-assessed their competency as good or very good in 91% (n = 28) of the competency areas listed in the self-assessment. The highest proportion of competencies that were self-assessed as good or very good included using medication risk management databases and evaluating the clinical importance of the information (97%, n = 92). The lowest proportion of competencies was found in applying clinical information from the key laboratory tests to patient care and knowing which laboratory tests are most important to monitor in each condition and medication (36%, n = 34). The students suggested that their pharmacy education should contain more medication review assignments as group work and that an elective course on medication reviews should be compulsory for all pharmacy students.