PHAR44002: Evaluating Your Prescribing Practice

What are the key reasons why pharmacy (prescribing) practice requires evaluation?

• Ensuring patient safety

• Maintaining clinical effectiveness and evidence-based practice

• Regulatory and legal compliance

• Professional development

• Improving patient experience and shared decision-making

• Addressing health inequalities and cost-effectiveness

How is evaluation necessary to ensure patient safety?

• Identify and reduce medication errors, contraindications, and inappropriate prescribing

• Monitor and manage ADR risks, especially with high-risk drugs

• Follow antibiotic guidelines, reducing AMR

How is evaluation necessary to maintain clinical effectiveness and evidence-based practice?

• Ensure that prescribed medications achieve the intended therapeutic effects

• Assess if prescribing is in line with national guidelines and local formulary recommendations

• Identify patients who may no longer need certain medications, reducing polypharmacy and harm

How is evaluation necessary to ensure regulatory and legal compliance?

• Comply with GPhC professional standards - patient-centred care, decision-making, and risk management

• UK laws:

  • HMR 2012 (covers prescribing rights)

  • Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (for CD prescribing)

  • Health and Social Care Act 2012 (governing NHS care standards)

How is evaluation necessary to support professional development?

• Self-reflection and peer review to identify areas for improvement

• Supports lifelong learning, ensuring pharmacists stay updated with new medicines and treatment guidelines

How is evaluation necessary to improve patient experience and shared decision-making?

• Assessment of patient satisfaction, adherence, and understanding of medicines helps improve communication and consultation skills

• Pharmacists should evaluate how well they engage patients in treatment choices, ensuring person-centred care

How is evaluation necessary to address health inequalities and cost-effectiveness?

• Identify disparities in medication access and outcomes among different ethnic, socioeconomic, or geographic populations

• Reviewing prescribing patterns helps ensure that medications are used appropriately and cost-effectively, reducing unnecessary NHS expenditure

List five aspects of (prescribing) practice that need evaluation.

• Patient safety and risk management

• Clinical effectiveness and adherence to guidelines

• Patient-centred care and shared decision-making

• Regulatory and legal compliance

• Cost-effectiveness and resource utilisation

Detail relevant tools to evaluate different aspects of practice.

• Supervision

• Observation of practice and clinical assessment skills

• Portfolios

• Workplace competency-based assessments

• Questionnaires

• Prescribing data analysis

• Audits

• Case-based discussions

• Personal formularies

• Patient and peer feedback