Pass the PSA, 1e

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If that section is not there, then you should start by identifying the answer choices with correct information and eliminating those with wrong information, using your clinical knowledge. The BNF is often helpful in this, but you will waste time if you look it up for every one of the choices. Then, you have to use your judgement to determine which of the correct information is the most appropriate to be given to the patient. After you prescribe a drug, you have to state the dose and route of administration. For regular medicines and general practice prescriptions, you also have to state the frequency. You need not state the duration. Refer to the BNF for the correct dose, route and frequency under the right indication.

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: PSA question structures and layouts reproduced with permission of the Medical Schools Council and the British Pharmacological Society. These structures and layouts apply to the pilot PSA assessment and may not be precisely replicated in the final version of the PSA. There is a 'Monitoring requirements' section in the BNF for many drugs. The information under that section is often the answer for questions about the monitoring required before prescribing a drug as well as questions about the monitoring for adverse effects. There may be more than one correct management options, but one will be better than the others. Ensure that there are no contraindications to a particular management option before selecting it. You can look up the BNF for the contraindications of each drug. I spent roughly 2 hours each weekend from September to February revising my pharmacology notes and using the books mentioned to become familiar with the exam. This helped me to prepare both the PSA and my finals in February. After that I spent 4-5 hours per day for the 3 weeks prior to the PSA consolidating my knowledge and completing the practice papers.There is an element of judgement of which is most important, if several pieces of information are accurate. Enzyme inhibitors: AO DEVICES – allopurinol, omeprazole, disulfiram, erythromycin, valproate, isoniazid, ciprofloxacin, ethanol (acute intoxication), sulphonamides. Others: grapefruit juice, amiodarone, and SSRIs (fluoxetine, sertraline). If unsure of how to manage ADR, the answers can often be found in the respective treatment summaries of the BNF. For examples – medication overdoses (poisoning, emergency treatment), hypoglycaemia (hypoglycaemia), reversal of a high INR (oral anticoagulants). The PSA exam is 2 hours long, with an extra 30 minutes available if you’re eligible for reasonable adjustments.

For each question, there will be a clinical case and you will be given one of the following: once-only medicines prescription chart, regular medicines prescription chart, general practice prescription form or hospital fluid prescription chart. 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! The PSA question bank matches the format of the official PSA questions, including the ability to write prescriptions. An example of a prescribing question in the PSA question bank Filter by PSA question format

Key features of the PSA question bank

There are 4 types of questions in this section. The first is identifying the adverse effect caused by a specific drug, the second is identifying the drug that is causing a specific adverse effect, the third is identifying drug interactions and the fourth is managing an adverse drug reaction. When identifying drugs with dose errors, note that in some cases the error is with the frequency rather than the dose itself. A correct dose with a wrong frequency counts as a dose error as well.