title: Essential competencies in prescribing: A first european cross-sectional study among 895 final-year medical students.
abstract: European medical students should have acquired adequate prescribing competencies before graduation, but it is not known whether this is the case. In this international multicenter study, we 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, our results show 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. Our 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|Research and Expertise Center in Pharmacotherapy Education (RECIPE), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Brinkman
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|Research and Expertise Center in Pharmacotherapy Education (RECIPE), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tichelaar
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|Research and Expertise Center in Pharmacotherapy Education (RECIPE), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schutte
authors.affiliation: Unit of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Benemei
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Böttiger
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Hypertension, University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chamontin
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Christiaens
authors.affiliation: Unit of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Likic
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Maˇiulaitis
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Marandi
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, NOVA Medical School, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: E C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Monteiro
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Papaioannidou
authors.affiliation: Clinical Immunology and Osteoarticular Diseases Unit, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Pers
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pontes
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Raskovic
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Regenthal
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Sanz
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Algesiology, Gr. T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iaşi, Romania.
authors.forename: B I
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Tamba
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|Research and Expertise Center in Pharmacotherapy Education (RECIPE), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tp de
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vries
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|Research and Expertise Center in Pharmacotherapy Education (RECIPE), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Richir
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|Research and Expertise Center in Pharmacotherapy Education (RECIPE), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ma van
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Agtmael
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004347:Drug Interactions; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005060:Europe; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D010601:Pharmacology, Clinical / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*