Unibo structure involved: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences
Scientific manager: Fabrizio De Ponti
Unibo Team: Fabrizio De Ponti, Milo Gatti
Project Web page: http://www.prescribingeducation.eu/european-prescribing-exam/
Erasmus+ Action type: Strategic Partnerships for higher education
Project reference: 2019-1-NL01-KA203-060492
Start Date: 1 September 2019
End Date: 31 August 2022
Budget: Total € 391,875 UNIBO € 23,221
Coordinator: STICHTING VUMC (NL)
Partners:
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM – UNIVERSITÀ DI BOLOGNA (IT)
ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS (EL)
LINKOPINGS UNIVERSITET (SE)
RADBOUD UNIVERSITAIR MEDISCH CENTRUM (NL)
SVEUCILISTE U ZAGREBU MEDICINSKI FAKULTET (HR)
UNIVERSIDAD DE LA LAGUNA (ES)
UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA (PT)
UNIVERSITEIT GENT (BE)
CONCLUSION LEARNING CENTERS (NL)
Summary:
The aim of this project is to develop, test and implement a standardised assessment on safe prescribing during the undergraduate medical curriculum in the European Union (EU). This is necessary because at present junior doctors make many prescribing errors with potential consequences for patient safety. Studies have shown that these errors are partially caused by a lack of prescribing knowledge and skills among medical graduates, which is due to inadequate clinical pharmacology and therapeutics (CPT) education during the undergraduate medical curriculum. Introducing a cross-border assessment might help to improve prescribing knowledge and skills of medical graduates and harmonise the CPT education during the undergraduate medical curriculum in the EU.
During this project, we will develop, test and implement an online assessment tool and question bank ('European Prescribing License'). The European Prescribing License (EPL) focuses on knowledge and skills that every EU medical graduate should have acquired in order to prescribe safely in clinical practice. An Expert Board consisting of clinical pharmacologists from each EU country will be established who are involved in item development and review. Additionally, representatives of partners universities will form an Assessment Board which oversees that items entered into the question bank are fit for the intended purpose. During the project period, approximately 4,000 penultimate and final-year medical students of eight participating EU medical schools (BE, CR, EL, ES, NL, IT, PT, SE) will complete the assessment. The EPL will be accredited by the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (EACPT) and regarded as an extra quality indicator for medical graduates.
Apart from the development, testing and implementation of the EPL, we will publish two research papers about the feasibility and effectivity of the EPL. Additionally, a presentation and workshop about the EPL will be held for CPT teachers during the 15th EACPT congress in 2021. Also, we will organize a short-term staff event to train clinical pharmacologists of the participating medical schools how to write high-quality items for the EPL and assess items of other teachers.
By introducing the EPL, we expect that the prescribing knowledge and skills of medical graduates of the participating EU medical schools will improve. Additionally, we expect that the quality and quantity of CPT education in the participating medical schools will be improved and harmonized in order to prepare students for the EPL. After this project, the EPL will be coordinated by the Education Working Group of the EACPT. Additionally, the EPL will be freely available to all medical schools in the EU, so the number of participating medical students will eventually be much higher. By increasing the prescribing knowledge and skills of medical graduates, we expect that future medical doctors in the EU will make fewer prescribing errors. This will contribute to improvement in the quality and safety of patient care.