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· Registration
· Adverse drug reactions
· Birdsgrove House
Letters to the Editor
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Preregistration
Plans to make OCSE a component of registration exam
From Mr G. C. Paul, MRPharmS
I refer to the letter from Sultan
Dajani (PJ, 16 July, p82).
The importance and relevance of objective structured clinical examinations
(OSCEs) has been recognised by the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
for several years and a motion was supported and passed at the 63rd
BPSA annual conference that “the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
should be moving towards incorporating an OSCE as an integral component
of the registration exam”. It was considered that an OSCE would
be an excellent way of testing the communication skills of a preregistration
trainee. An OSCE examination would be an additional method of ensuring
that similar standards are met by all the candidates of the registration
examination, and would also allow assessment of practice-relevant skills.
Furthermore, the OSCE is an integral part of the assessment of other
health care professionals, which supports the rationale for the incorporation
of OSCEs into the training of future pharmacists.
Many students have encountered the OSCE during the course of their undergraduate
training and believe it to be a useful form of assessment. Within an
OSCE scenario there is the opportunity for examiners to test and challenge
candidates’ knowledge and communication skills thoroughly, but
in turn there is also the opportunity for candidates to demonstrate their
abilities. The BPSA supports any development in assessment methods that
ensures that the pharmacy workforce is truly fit for the future.
Pharmacists are highly trained and skilled professionals able to adapt
and apply the knowledge they have learnt to any situation. The Society
should embrace any method of assessment that helps confirm these necessary
skills are in place in preregistration trainees.
The BPSA fully supports the current work that is being undertaken by
the Society to review teaching and assessment of future pharmacists,
with the view to incorporating an OSCE into the registration examination,
and we look forward to working with the Society on this matter.
Gautam Paul
President
British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
Training year completed before degree was beneficial
From Mr A. R. Korsner, MRPharmS
Ian Davis’s (PJ, 23 July, p113) and Sultan
Dajani’s (PJ, 16
July, p82) comments remind me that back in 1968, as was permissible at
that time, I completed my preregistration training before starting my degree.
This helped me immensely. I was au fait with the practices and processes
of the profession and familiar with the available medicines. At college,
the knowledge I had acquired during the preregistration year gave me much
confidence and I was able to concentrate far more on the science and professionalism
of practice, while others learnt the dose and uses of such everyday items
as paraldehyde enemas. It gave far more insight and appreciation into what
we were actually being taught and meaningful reasons for it. I would commend
this, at least in part, for the future. I believe that fewer would fail
the registration examination if this were done.
Adrian Korsner
London |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal