The Prescribing Skills Assessment pilot was successfully completed in June 2013 with under 5000 medical students taking part. Its introduction as a possible form of assessment came courtesy of a General Medical Council study noting that 9% of hospital prescriptions contained errors [1] and that prescribing per se was an area that new graduates found the most challenging [2]. The aim of the Prescribing Skills Assessment is to address such concerns and allow students to demonstrate competency in the safe and effective use of medicines. This is all well and good close to graduation, but what about in practice? After all, clinicians will be expected to demonstrate such competencies well into retirement. With evolution at play and newer and more purposeful therapeutic agents being developed, surely it makes sense for such an assessment to be introduced in postgraduate training? With a rising elderly population, increasing complexity of chronic illness and the prevalence of polypharmacy, prescribing assessment should certainly not be a once-only routine.
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