News and updates on today's conference focusing on the practical application of pharmacology to prescribing decision making. Case studies focusing on managing co-morbidity, frailty in the older person, mental health medications, medications safety, polypharmacy and personalised prescribing.
EXTENDED SESSION: Managing Co-Morbidity and Drug Interactions Within Your Scope of Practice
Dr Trudi McIntosh
Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice
Course Leader MSc
Robert Gordon University Advanced Pharmacy Practice
Pharmacist Independent Prescribing
• understanding drug interactions and managing comorbidity
• mechanisms of drug interactions and common issues
• potential implications of alterative medicines
• ensuring your practice is evidence based: guidelines and evidence
• keeping your prescribing knowledge up to date: accessing education, training and resources
• assessing and evaluating prescribing competence
• ensuring you prescribe within your scope of practice and identifying red flags
• case study presentations
Trudi began by saying "Resources are stretched and demand is more than ever, we have to be very clever with our approach"
Trudi also said "Shared decision making and keeping the patient at the heart of what we are doing is very important".
On health literacy Trudi said "Peoples understanding is not their responsibility , its our responsibility to make sure the patient understands their medication - there are a lot of good resources to help with this".
Mental Health Drug Interactions
Kirsty Fishburn
Lecturer in Mental Health and Non-Medical Prescribing
University of Hull
• interactions and implications of common mental health medications
• optimising physical health medications and understanding potential side effects for people taking mental health medications
• case studies and examples
On Drug interaction Kirsty said "As prescribers we need to know how drugs are going to react with other medications. We have to rely on what people tell us with regards to allergies and taking other medications"
Kirsty also said "Just because you can prescribe it doesn't mean you should. We need to recognise our knowledge and maybe refer to a colleague who specialises in other areas"
Supporting Organisations
