The PSA exam is 2 hours long, with an extra 30 minutes available if you’re eligible for reasonable adjustments. VitalSource Bookshelf gives you access to content when, where, and how you want. When you read an eBook on VitalSource Bookshelf, enjoy such features as:

Know your metrics! milligrams and millilitres, micrograms and nanograms. Know the difference and how to convert between them. Get familiar with the BNF (both online and paper versions) and know where to find things as it isn’t always obvious or easy. For example, converting opioid doses is in the palliative care summary, HRT is in the sex hormones summary, and high INR management is in the oral anticoagulants summary.Among the 5 choices of answers, there may be more than one correct monitoring options, but only one is the most appropriate. 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 judgement of risks and benefits of treatment, and attention to detail. Developed in-house by the perfectionist-mad team at Pulsenotes. We put our all into these events to ensure that you are best prepared to smash your PSA!

Be very familiar with fluids, insulin, anticoagulants, antibiotics and analgesics as they are commonly examined After finishing the practice questions, find out if your answer for each question is correct. You should understand the reasoning behind every correct or wrong answer. For example: ‘What would you prescribed to treat acute pulmonary oedema secondary to left ventricular systolic dysfunction?’ Read carefully whether you are being asked to assess that the treatment is working/ beneficial or whether you are assessing for adverse effects – you will do different tests for each of these. Get ahead! The Prescribing Safety Assessment’ by Muneeb Choudhry, Nicholas Rubek Fuggle and Amar IqbalPSA 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. DoesanyoneknowhowtochangeaHRTdosewhilealsoconvertingitfromtablettopatch?IsthereaconversiontablesomewherethatIhaven'tfound?Ican'tfindanyinformationotherthantheBNFbasicprinciplesofHRT.NodosesoradviceonhowtoswitchsoI'mreallystrugglingtofindtheanswer. iknowyou'vehearditbeforebutREADthequestion.Ageimportantinchildren,andtheysometimeswon'toutrightsaypatientispregnantinsteadalludetoit...e.gpatientattendedantenatalclinicetc This section comprises 40% of the available marks. You will be given a clinical scenario and asked to prescribe one drug/ fluid. For F1s, the PSA certificate does not have an expiry date as such. A PSA pass within two years prior to starting the F1 year is valid, but the pass does not expire during the F1 year (e.g. if a trainee joins the foundation programme in August 2022 and passed the PSA in February 2021, the PSA certificate would not expire in February 2023 before their F1 year is complete). If trainees are required to record an expiry date in their e-portfolio it is suggested that the last date of the F1 year is entered.

Utilise the “Interaction” section for the medication on the BNF. This will give a list of all interactions with the particular medication you are interested in. Again, use the ‘Ctrl F’ function to speed up your search. Most of the questions can be answered with the help of the BNF. However, as there are several drugs listed in each question, having to look up every one of them in the BNF will require a lot of time. To save time, your clinical knowledge is important. Refer to the BNF only if you are unsure.Meanwhile, if the there are clinical features of toxicity, stop the drug temporarily and treat the toxicity, then either restart it at a lower dose or switch to another drug. If the plasma concentration is above normal but there are no features of toxicity, then decrease the dose. The required percentage of reduction in the dose is usually the same as the percentage of reduction in the plasma concentration that you want to achieve.

Aubrun F, Mazoit JX, Riou B. Postoperative intravenous morphine titration. British journal of anaesthesia 2012;108(2):193-201. The PSA is based on the competencies identified in the General Medical Council’s Outcomes for graduates (originally published in Tomorrow’s Doctors), such as writing new prescriptions, reviewing existing prescriptions, calculating drug doses, identifying and avoiding both adverse drug reactions and medication errors and amending prescribing to suit individual patient circumstances. The eight distinct prescribing areas: prescribing, prescription review, planning management, providing information about medicines, calculation, adverse drug reactions, drug monitoring and data interpretation, are delivered over two hours. The content of each question refers to ailments and drugs you are likely to encounter in year one of the Foundation Programme.National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. The management of atrial fibrillation CG36. London: National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence 2010.