Preparing medical and pharmacy students for collaborative working in primary care: the value of interprofessional practice-based course in medicines optimisation.

Abstract

Today more older people are living longer with complex health conditions and social care needs. Multimorbidity is often managed by community practitioners who oversee the use of multiple medications, which can lead to polypharmacy safety concerns. While clinical pharmacists' roles are established in acute settings, they are in the main new in family practice or primary care. To help medical and pharmacy students understand more about clinical pharmacists in primary care, we used an interactive experiential learning model for students over two days. Students in small groups were prepared to visit a patient in their own home to holistically review the patients' medicines and care. This mixed methods study reports on the learning between 2017 and 2020, including 448 pre-post questionnaires with free text comments and one exploratory qualitative case study with two student focus groups, a practice GP and patient. All students valued the clinical relevance of this practice-based course. Medical students highly valued this way of learning and significantly increased their learning on complex medication reviews (p = .000), recognizing the future significance of working closely with pharmacists when qualified because of their contribution to prescribing. Pharmacy students highly rated this learning because they worked as equals alongside the medical students, felt valued, and they perceived the importance of learning with patients (p = .000). The student work highlighted unsafe practice and in some cases actually changed patient management. The interviewed patient and GP welcomed the course. Integrating medical and pharmacy students interprofessional learning in primary care was valued by students and the clinical team.