A PSA pass is considered valid for two years. An FP 2022 applicant who has taken and passed the PSA before February 2021 will be required to take it again by their foundation school.

You will not be allowed to bring anything into the exam other than a calculator, pencil, pen and the paper version of the BNF. You will have online access to the BNF and NICE guidelines throughout the exam.Learn the common and serious side-effects and monitoring requirements for: ACEi, antidepressants, anticoagulants, bisphosphonates, HRT, insulin, methotrexate, and statins. Solid state physics Quantum theory Chemical bonds SCIENCE Physics Condensed Matter Física do estado sólido Mecânica quântica Know what to do in the event of a missed contraceptive pill (this varies depending on the type of pill being taken). Sometimes different dosages of the same medication are posed as different options in a question so if you are completely sure of the treatment for a condition, the best thing to do is search up the medication on the BNF and select the correct dosage under the indications/dosage section.

Don’t make it too complicated. Remember, this exam is aimed at final year medical students and Foundation Year 1 doctors so the paper will not ask you to prescribe chemotherapy drugs or other specialist medications so don’t worry about learning those. The PSA is a very time-sensitive assessment and therefore time management is important. A guide of how long you should spend on each section (based on weightage) is as detailed below: This section can be structured in a variety of ways,testing either on common adverse drug reactions, potential drug interactions or management of adverse reactions.Don’t lose easy marks! As prescribing counts for a whopping great 40% of the marks don’t lose out on the ample marks available for your signature and the date! Get familiar with the BNF. The BNF online is the best option if you are wondering, but it really helps with efficiency if you are already familiar with how to navigate it before sitting the exam. Sp aced repetition is a technique for improving the retention of information . It works by spacing out the intervals between review sessions . This spacing allows you to consolidate the information making it more likely you will recall it during the prescribing safety assessment. Data interpretation made memorable and simple including ECG, ABGs, chest X-rays and basic bloods. Common traps highlighted throughout. The treatment is often tailored to individual patients and depends can potentially depend on factors such as gender (e.g duration of UTI treatment for men is 7 days), drug history and allergies.

As an F1 you will often be asked to prescribe fluids so memorise the NICE guidelines for maintenance fluid: 25-30mL/kg/day of fluid, 1mmol/kg/day of sodium, potassium and chloride, and 50-100g/day of glucose. You will be given a clinical scenario where a drug (often new) has been prescribed. You will be asked to select the most appropriate monitoring actions. There are 36 seconds per mark; if you are struggling to find an answer within a suitable time frame for the available marks, make a best guess (there is no negative marking) and move on. There will be 2 fluid prescribing questions – learn how much fluid a patient is likely to need for resuscitation, rehydration and maintenance, and which fluids to use. The information that is important can often be found in “important safety information” ( e.g Rivaroxaban not being effective on an empty stomach ), “patient and carer advice” (e.g advice regarding missed contraceptive doses) or “monitoring requirements”.Prescribing is a fundamental part of the work of Foundation Year 1 doctors, who write and review many prescriptions each day. It is a complex task requiring knowledge of medicines and the diseases they are used to treat, careful judgment of risks and benefits of treatment, and attention to detail. If the assessment is formative, candidates who do not pass the PSA will be given two further opportunities during FY1 to pass the assessment to be awarded the Foundation Year 1 Certificate of Completion (F1CC). Non-UK medical students applying to the foundation programme will be expected to take the PSA within their foundation school doing their FY1.

There is an element of judgement of which is most important, if several pieces of information are accurate. This section comprises 40% of the available marks. You will be given a clinical scenario and asked to prescribe one drug/ fluid. The prescribing items are marked using an automated system that compares the given answer with a mark scheme containing a number of correct answer(s) and suboptimal answers. The given answer must exactly match one of the answers in the mark scheme in all respects for credit to be given automatically. The Applicant’s masked NRIC number (for Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident) FIN or Passport number (for foreigner);

Newly qualified FY1 doctors will write and review many prescriptions each day, however, prescribing is often considered one of the most challenging areas. In addition, prescription errors are commonly observed in practice. Therefore, the PSA was introduced to ensure junior doctors are safe prescribers with the aim to improve clinical practice and reduce the number of prescribing errors.