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General practice / Family practice
Research
Supervised pharmacy student-led medication review in primary care for patients with type 2 diabetes: a randomised controlled pilot study
  1. R P Adams1,
  2. G Barton2,
  3. D Bhattacharya1,
  4. P F Grassby3,
  5. R Holland4,
  6. A Howe4,
  7. N Norris5,
  8. L Shepstone2,
  9. D J Wright1
  1. 1School of Pharmacy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, Research Park, Norwich, UK
  2. 2Norwich Medical School and Norwich Clinical Trials Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
  3. 3School of Pharmacy, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK
  4. 4Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
  5. 5School of Education & Lifelong Learning, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
  1. Correspondence to DJ Wright; d.j.wright{at}uea.ac.uk

Abstract

Objective To pilot and feasibility-test supervised final year undergraduate pharmacy student-led medication reviews for patients with diabetes to enable definitive trial design.

Method Third year pharmacy students were recruited from one UK School of Pharmacy and trained to review patient's medical records and provide face-to-face consultations under supervision while situated within the patient's medical practice. Patients with type 2 diabetes were recruited by postal invitation letter from their medical practice and randomised via automated system to intervention or usual care. Diabetes-related clinical data, quality of life, patient reported beliefs, adherence and satisfaction with medicines information were collected with validated tools at baseline and 6 months postintervention. The process for collecting resource utilisation data was tested. Stakeholder meetings were held before and after intervention to develop study design and learn from its implementation. Recruitment and attrition rates were determined plus the quality of the outcome data. Power calculations for a definitive trial were performed on the different outcome measures to identify the most appropriate primary outcome measure.

Results 792 patients were identified as eligible from five medical practices. 133 (16.8%) were recruited and randomised to control (n=66) or usual care (n=67). 32 students provided the complete intervention to 58 patients. Initial data analysis showed potential for impact in the right direction for some outcomes measured including glycated haemoglobin, quality of life and patient satisfaction with information about medicines. The intervention was found to be feasible and acceptable to patients. The pilot and feasibility study enabled the design of a future full randomised controlled trial.

Conclusions Student and patient recruitment are possible. The intervention was well received and demonstrated some potential benefits. While the intervention was relatively inexpensive and provided an experiential learning opportunity for pharmacy students, its cost-effectiveness remains to be determined.

Trial registration number ISRCTN26445805; Results.

  • EDUCATION & TRAINING (see Medical Education & Training)

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-009246

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