Developed in-house by the perfectionist-mad team at Pulsenotes. We put our all into these events to ensure that you are best prepared to smash your PSA! PSA question structures and layouts reproduced with permission of the Medical Schools Council and the British Pharmacological Society. These structures and layouts apply to the pilot PSA assessment and may not be precisely replicated in the final version of the PSA.

PSA Question Item Styles: Planning Management, Providing Information, Adverse Drug, Reactions, Drug Monitoring and Data Interpretation - Dr Lynne Bollington In this section, you will not have time to look up side effects or interactions for every drug listed. Therefore, having a good understanding of basic prescribing errors will help you save time in the exam. BNF Logo [image on the internet]. Accessed 06/07/2012. Reproduced with kind permission of the British Medical Association and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.Prescribing is a fundamental part of the Foundation Programme as doctors will write and review many prescriptions on a daily basis. The British Pharmacological Society and MSC Assessment have worked together to develop the PSA which allows all final year students and postgraduate doctors to demonstrate their competences in relation to the safe and effective use of medicines.

Aubrun F, Mazoit JX, Riou B. Postoperative intravenous morphine titration. British journal of anaesthesia 2012;108(2):193-201.If you are unsure about the medication used to treat a condition such as an acute dystonic reaction. The best solution is to search “poisoning” under treatment summaries which would tell you that procyclidine or diazepam can be used in this scenario. You may notice that some of the practice questions for this section require using the BNF or clinical knowledge. However, the questions for this section in the actual PSA will not require them, it is purely calculation. For the fourth type of question, you have to determine the immediate next step of management that is most appropriate for the adverse drug reaction. It may be pharmacological or non-pharmacological management.The BNF may be able to help, but only in some cases.

VitalSource Bookshelf gives you access to content when, where, and how you want. When you read an eBook on VitalSource Bookshelf, enjoy such features as: You will be given a clinical scenario and a list of 6-10 drugs the patient is taking, you will need to identify drugs that are contra-indicated (e.g. in renal impairment), causing the clinical picture (e.g. hypokalaemia, confusion, hypotension), or contain a dosing error. Remember, the BNF should have all the information on side effects, contraindications, prescribing in pregnancy, renal impairment, hepatic impairment and interactions.

For F1s, the PSA certificate does not have an expiry date as such. A PSA pass within two years prior to starting the F1 year is valid, but the pass does not expire during the F1 year (e.g. if a trainee joins the foundation programme in August 2022 and passed the PSA in February 2021, the PSA certificate would not expire in February 2023 before their F1 year is complete). If trainees are required to record an expiry date in their e-portfolio it is suggested that the last date of the F1 year is entered. Single-best answer– planning management, providing information, adverse drug reactions, drug monitoring, data interpretation iknowyou'vehearditbeforebutREADthequestion.Ageimportantinchildren,andtheysometimeswon'toutrightsaypatientispregnantinsteadalludetoit...e.gpatientattendedantenatalclinicetc There are 4 types of questions in this section. The first is identifying the adverse effect caused by a specific drug, the second is identifying the drug that is causing a specific adverse effect, the third is identifying drug interactions and the fourth is managing an adverse drug reaction.