Authors

  1. Dugan, Mary Ann DNP, CRNP, FNP-BC
  2. D'Andrea, William MS Ed, RPh, CCP

Article Content

Even with widespread electronic medical records, nurse practitioner (NP) providers need to learn the important skill of calling in and documenting prescriptions. Many NP programs lack this essential skill as part of their clinical experiences. One way to integrate this practice is to simulate this process with a pharmacist faculty member who has the perspective of common provider errors. This simulation was implemented in a course with prescriptive decision-making as a course focus. The students participated in a patient visit via telemedicine that required a prescription to be integrated in the patient plan. At the conclusion of the patient visit, NP students were expected to submit a recorded prescription as they would in leaving a message for a pharmacy order. The recordings were then shared with the pharmacist faculty for grading. A rubric (see Supplemental Digital Content, Rubric, available at: http://links.lww.com/NE/B84) was used to determine the earned grade for the NP student recording. The NP faculty also graded a patient care visit note, whereby the prescription was expected to match exactly what was relayed in the recording. This assignment provided 2-pronged feedback for the student: accuracy of the appropriate prescription determined by the NP faculty, and correctness of the prescription evaluated by the pharmacist faculty. This was a no-cost activity for the students and program. The students reported that they appreciated having this experience that will be used in their future practice.