Prescribing and therapeutics courses for finals and the PSA

A free course for medical, pharmacy and nursing students who want a working grasp of how the body handles drugs. It covers absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion, then clearance, volume of distribution, half-life and bioavailability, and applies them to concentration-time curves, steady state, loading and maintenance doses, and dose adjustment when renal or hepatic function changes.

For final-year medical students preparing for finals and the Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA), final-year pharmacy students, and foundation doctors. Topics: prescribing calculations, applied pharmacokinetics and therapeutic drug monitoring of narrow-therapeutic-index drugs, and interpreting potassium, sodium, renal, thyroid and liver results. UK practice, BNF dosing and NICE-style guidance. Pharmacy students do not sit the PSA.

For final-year medical students preparing for finals and the PSA, final-year pharmacy students and foundation doctors. Covers what counts as an ADR, A to F and DoTS classification, WHO-UMC and Naranjo causality, severity versus seriousness, type A reactions, allergy, organ-specific harm, and Yellow Card reporting. Every module closes with a quiz. Practice includes prescribing scenarios, timed OSCE stations and ADR cases to assess and report.

Prescribing where standard adult doses cause harm, in UK practice with British National Formulary dosing, for final-year medical students preparing for finals and the Prescribing Safety Assessment, final-year pharmacy students and foundation doctors. It covers renal and hepatic impairment, pregnancy and breastfeeding, weight-based dosing in children, polypharmacy and deprescribing in older people, and serious interactions and adverse drug reactions.

Pain, neurological and psychiatric prescribing in UK practice, for final-year medical students preparing for finals and the Prescribing Safety Assessment, final-year pharmacy students and foundation doctors. It covers the analgesic ladder, opioid and NSAID safety, neuropathic pain, epilepsy and valproate risk, migraine, Parkinson's disease, depression, lithium, anxiety and sleep, psychosis, rapid tranquillisation and delirium. Doses follow the British National Formulary.

Respiratory drug therapy and assessment in UK practice, for final-year medical students preparing for finals and the Prescribing Safety Assessment, final-year pharmacy students and foundation doctors. It covers stepwise asthma management, inhaler technique, acute severe asthma in adults and children, COPD inhaled therapy and infective exacerbations, controlled oxygen and type 2 respiratory failure, and respiratory examination, chest radiographs and bronchiolitis.

Acute medicine and emergency prescribing in UK practice, for final-year medical students preparing for finals and the Prescribing Safety Assessment, final-year pharmacy students and foundation doctors. It covers ABCDE assessment, basic life support, anaphylaxis, poisoning and antidotes for paracetamol, opioids and lithium, alcohol withdrawal, intravenous fluids, acute kidney injury and hyperkalaemia, blood gases, upper GI and variceal bleeding, status epilepticus and subarachnoid haemorrhage.

Diabetes and endocrine prescribing in UK practice, for final-year medical students preparing for finals and the Prescribing Safety Assessment, final-year pharmacy students and foundation doctors. It covers choosing and intensifying type 2 diabetes therapy, insulin regimens and sick-day rules, hypoglycaemia, the variable rate insulin infusion, DKA and HHS, thyroid disease, corticosteroids and adrenal crisis, and calcium and sodium disorders. Dosing follows the British National Formulary.

Antibiotic prescribing and infection management in UK practice, for final-year medical students preparing for finals and the Prescribing Safety Assessment, final-year pharmacy students and foundation doctors. It covers the antibiotic classes, stewardship and C. difficile, penicillin allergy, gentamicin dosing, sepsis, pneumonia, COPD exacerbations and tuberculosis, urinary, skin and soft tissue infection, meningitis, malaria and dengue in returning travellers, and febrile neutropenia.

Anticoagulant and antiplatelet prescribing in UK practice, for final-year medical students preparing for finals and the Prescribing Safety Assessment, final-year pharmacy students and foundation doctors. It covers warfarin, heparins and direct oral anticoagulants, INR monitoring, renal dosing and reversal, DVT and pulmonary embolism, VTE prophylaxis, stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation, acute stroke and limb ischaemia, and the interactions that make these drugs dangerous.

Cardiovascular pharmacology and therapeutics in UK practice, for final-year medical students preparing for finals and the Prescribing Safety Assessment, final-year pharmacy students and foundation doctors. It covers stepwise hypertension treatment and statins, acute coronary syndromes and the discharge prescription, heart failure and diuretics, and atrial fibrillation, heart block and syncope, including the electrolyte and renal effects of cardiovascular drugs.