Clinical Therapeutics & Patient Safety

The Clinical Therapeutics & Patient Safety module focuses on the safety-critical areas of pharmacy practice that are repeatedly tested in MPharm finals, OSCEs, and encountered in real clinical settings. This module is designed to sharpen students’ ability to recognise risk, prevent harm, and respond appropriately when things go wrong—core competencies for safe pharmacy practice.

The module begins by exploring what makes certain medicines high-risk, considering drug properties, patient vulnerability, and system-level factors. Students will learn how to optimise high-risk therapies through appropriate monitoring, risk mitigation strategies, and clinical judgement.

Acute safety topics are then addressed, including poisoning, sepsis, and adverse drug reactions. Emphasis is placed on early recognition, escalation pathways, immediate management principles, and the pharmacist’s role in reporting and learning from harm.

Practical therapeutics are covered through applied topics such as IV fluids and burns, focusing on common prescribing errors, fluid management principles, and infection risk—areas where pharmacists play a key safety role.

The module concludes with a structured introduction to root cause analysis (RCA) and quality improvement. Students will learn how to analyse incidents, identify contributory factors, construct fishbone diagrams, and write meaningful, actionable recommendations that improve patient safety rather than assign blame.

Throughout the module, learning is reinforced with safety-focused scenarios, exam-style questions, and OSCE-relevant decision-making frameworks.