The benefit of targeted pharmacist education in reducing prescribing errors by junior doctors – a controlled trial.

INTERVENTION: Intervention (1): Regular prescribing feedback and targeted education of junior doctors by a clinical pharmacist, through three ten minute sessions per week for four weeks. ‐ These sessions were face‐to‐face with a clinical pharmacist, in a convenient ward space (eg meeting rooms), and were conducted as a group (3 interns, 1 registrar and the clinical pharmacist) ‐ One of the principle investigators collected data from the medication charts of the general medical wards, pertaining to the type and frequency of prescribing errors. This was discussed with the clinical pharmacist and the feedback/teaching sessions focussed on common prescribing errors seen on the wards, as well as dangerous prescribing errors recently identified. Intervention (2): e‐learning intervention whereby junior doctors completed the Australian National Prescribing Service’s (NPS) National Inpatient Medication Chart Training e‐learning course. ‐ This e‐learning course comprises 7 modules covering aspects of safe prescribing. ‐ The modules are estimated to take between 80‐95 minutes to complete all together. ‐ E‐learning intervention doctors were asked to complete the course between the end of the baseline data collection period and the start of the intervention data collection (over the weekend) and to show the investigators the certificate of completion. CONDITION: Prescribing errors PRIMARY OUTCOME: Prescribing error rate, calculated by dividing the total number of prescribing errors identified by the total number of medication orders written. We compared pre‐intervention error rates to post‐intervention error rates. SECONDARY OUTCOME: nil INCLUSION CRITERIA: All junior doctors who were rotated onto general medicine at the time of the study participated, consisting of 12 interns and four registrars. All units were made aware of the study before it began, and doctors were informed that they were expected to participate as part of an ongoing quality assurance process. There was no particular age limit for doctors to participate.