Medicine Selection and Reliable Source Use
Choose an effective, safe and appropriate medicine using current guidance, local formularies and the permitted BNF or BNFc resources.
How to prepare for the PSA
Combine patient-centred prescribing judgement with fast BNF navigation, reliable calculations, complete prescriptions and explicit monitoring and communication.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Medicine selection balances likely benefit, avoidable harm, patient circumstances, evidence, national guidance and appropriate local formulary use.
Exam cue: Compare the candidate medicines against the indication, patient risks and current treatment.
Concept 2
The permitted BNF and BNFc resources support checks of indications, contraindications, cautions, interactions, dose ranges and administration details.
Exam cue: Use a reference to verify a precise fact, then return to the scenario to make the decision.
Concept 3
Opioids, anticoagulants, insulins, antibiotics and infusion fluids receive mandatory high-risk coverage across each official assessment.
Exam cue: For a high-risk medicine, make the independent safety checks explicit.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Choosing a familiar medicine without checking whether it is suitable for the individual patient.
Guardrail: Do not let a familiar medicine, reference search or calculator output replace patient-specific safety checks and escalation.
Assuming access to the BNF permits use of unrelated NICE guidance or external websites during the assessment.
Guardrail: Use the permitted formulary to verify a precise fact, but return to the scenario before deciding.
Treating an interaction alert as a complete clinical decision without considering severity and context.
Guardrail: Do not let a familiar medicine, reference search or calculator output replace patient-specific safety checks and escalation.
Memory anchors
Benefit–Risk Balance
Select treatment whose expected benefit outweighs avoidable harm for this patient.
BNF Purpose
Use the BNF or BNFc to verify medicine facts, not to replace interpretation of the case.
Local Formulary
Use local formulary choices where appropriate while preserving individual patient safety.
High-Risk Five
The PSA guarantees coverage of opioids, anticoagulants, insulins, antibiotics and infusion fluids.
Escalate Uncertainty
Seek senior or pharmacy advice when the decision exceeds current knowledge or experience.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
A non-pregnant adult has uncomplicated lower UTI and eGFR 75 mL/min/1.73 m². Which source combination best verifies a proposed antibiotic and dose?
A 7-year-old needs an antibiotic. Which reference should be used to verify the age- and weight-specific dose?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
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