The Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA) was created as the first single, national, online assessment of prescribing competency, and has seen positive responses from around the world as a powerful way of enhancing patient safety. It is led and part-funded by the British Pharmacological Society and MSC Assessment, with additional funding from Health Education England and NHS Education Scotland.
The British Pharmacological Society and MSC Assessment, in collaboration with stakeholders, identified that a reliable and valid assessment was the best way to demonstrate that new doctors have the necessary competencies to begin prescribing independently. Although local assessments had been developed by medical schools and hospitals, no widely accepted measure of prescribing performance existed before 2007.
The partnership has leveraged the skills of both organisations’ memberships, their own funding, public funding, and input from a diverse group of stakeholders to create, pilot, and prove the concept of a validated prescribing assessment. The stakeholders who have supported and shaped delivery include students, junior doctors, medical schools, Government, regulators, employers and publishers.
