EACPT
has funded the first study of Essential
Competencies in
Prescribing
among European medical students. The study was led by the Working Group on Education of the EACPT and involved 895 Final-Year Medical Students
attending 26 medical schools in 17 European countries.
European medical students should
have acquired adequate prescribing competencies before graduation, but prior to
this study it was not known whether this is the case. In this international multicenter
study, the researchers evaluated the essential knowledge, skills, and attitudes
in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics (CPT) of final-year medical students across
Europe. In a cross-sectional design, 26 medical schools from 17 European
countries were asked to administer a standardized assessment and questionnaire to
50 final-year students.
Although there were differences between schools, results
showed an overall lack of essential prescribing competencies among final-year students
in Europe. Students had a poor knowledge of drug interactions and contraindications,
and chose inappropriate therapies for common diseases or made prescribing errors.
These important findings results
suggest that undergraduate teaching in CPT is inadequate in many European schools,
leading to incompetent prescribers and potentially unsafe patient care. A European
core curriculum with clear learning outcomes and assessments should be urgently
developed.
The EACPT was founded 24 years ago and
now includes as members all national organisations for clinical pharmacology in
Europe, as well as organisations from further afield internationally. The EACPT
aims to provide educational and scientific support for the more than 4000
individual professionals interested in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics
throughout the European region, with its congresses attended by a global
audience. The EACPT also advises policy makers on how the specialty can
contribute to human health and wealth.
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