Prescribing is a complex task requiring a wide range of skills, from information gathering and risk management, knowledge of pharmacology and therapeutics, clinical decision-making, to communication and cooperation with others in the team and understanding the commercial, regulatory and legal requirements.

Despite dentists being the second largest prescriber group in Australia, most dentists report having little or no formal education on how to prescribe. It tends to be a skill picked up ‘on the fly’ under the tutelage of senior staff in a workplace. This not a safe way to learn such an important and potentially dangerous skill, especially considering the high-risk medicines dentists can prescribe.

This one-day seminar will provide a structured overview of the foundation skills required to be a competent and safe prescriber in contemporary health care. Particular attention will be paid to the cognitive steps leading up to the act of prescribing including medication history-taking.

Topics focus on high-risk situations such as the very young, older people, pregnancy, and breastfeeding and ‘polypharmacy’. Complex medical patients with comorbidities such as cardiovascular and autoimmune disease, kidney and liver impairment will also be discussed. Case studies will address error-prone situations such as dose calculations, look-alike-sound-alike drugs, drug interactions, unsafe abbreviations, and prescribing under time constraints, focussing on prevention of prescribing errors and patient safety.

Topics include:

• Core Competencies for prescribing and how they are assessed
• Prescribing legislation, the TGA, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, Safescript
• How to take medication history to avoid prescribing problems
• Prescribing common drugs appropriately – antibiotics, NSAIDs and opioids
• Guidelines Versus Product information
• Compounded versus manufactured medicines
• Prescribing safely for special populations - children, the elderly, pregnancy, breastfeeding
• Prescribing to avoid drug interactions and adverse reactions
• Medication safety - preventing prescribing errors

Learning Objectives:

• List key skills underpinning safe and appropriate prescribing of medications.
• Demonstrate how a comprehensive medication history is documented, giving three key details for every drug included.
• Implement key safety measures in prescribing for the very young and very old, to prevent medication errors and patient harm.
• Apply principles of safe prescribing for pregnant and breastfeeding people, knowing how to determine when drugs are contraindicated.
• Apply medication safety principles to avoid high risk prescribing situations.