Abstract:
Background: Drug related problems (DRPs) in prescriptions could result in patient harm.
Objective: To assess the effectiveness of an educational workshop on detecting DRPs in
prescriptions by a cohort of community pharmacists. Methods: Pharmacists working in a
large community pharmacy chain in Sri Lanka were invited for an educational workshop on
detecting DRPs in prescriptions. Participants were asked to review three mock prescriptions
containing hypothetical DRPs before the workshop. After an interactive teaching session,
pharmacists were asked to review the same three prescriptions again. Results: All
pharmacists who attended the workshop (N=58) participated. The mean score for detecting
DRPs per pharmacist at pre-assessment was 5.3±2.1 which increased to 8.5±1.7 at
post-assessment (p<0.001). Conclusion: An educational intervention improved the
community pharmacists’ ability to detect DRPs related to completeness and legality of
prescriptions but failed to make a significant impact on detecting serious pharmacological
issues like medicine duplications and interactions.
