Applied Prescribing Clinics

The Applied Prescribing Clinics module is an advanced, practice-focused course designed to bridge the gap between knowing the guidelines and making safe prescribing decisions under pressure. It mirrors how prescribing actually happens in clinical settings—messy histories, incomplete information, competing risks, and time constraints.

Rather than revising conditions in isolation, students work through clinic-style scenarios covering cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory conditions, pain and MSK problems, medicines safety, and behaviour change. Each topic emphasises decision hierarchy, risk management, monitoring, and documentation, reflecting how prescribing is assessed in finals, OSCEs, and early foundation training.

The module begins with a universal clinical decision-making toolkit, centred on the Safety → Efficacy → Practicality framework used implicitly by examiners and clinicians. Students learn how to rapidly screen prescriptions, prioritise risks, recognise high-harm errors, and justify decisions clearly.

From there, the module progresses through specialist clinics including hypertension, heart failure, diabetes (including CKD and CGM interpretation), respiratory disease, spirometry, pain and musculoskeletal conditions, and smoking cessation services. Each clinic combines:

• Structured clinical reasoning

• Monitoring and escalation thresholds

• Drug selection and optimisation

• Governance, legality, and documentation

• Case-based workshops reflecting real NHS practice

Significant emphasis is placed on recognising when not to prescribe, when to stop or hold medicines, and how to handle complex or high-risk situations such as abnormal blood results, suspected drug-induced harm, shared care requests, and unsafe hospital charts.

This module is deliberately safety-heavy and reflects the reality of modern pharmacy practice, preparing students not just to pass exams, but to function confidently in prescribing-adjacent roles from day one of practice.