Most safety incidents can be categorised into four main areas: diagnosis, prescribing, communication between health care providers and patients, and organisational issues (i.e. safety climate/training, event reporting).
Such events may be related to professional practice, health care products, procedures, and systems, including prescribing; order communication; product labelling, packaging, and nomenclature; compounding; dispensing; distribution; administration; education; monitoring; and use.
As well as increased knowledge students reported the experience improved their practical skills in prescribing, communication and team working.
Ward nurses were mentioned as a source of guidance both for prescribing and communication with relatives.
The STAR Program is grounded in a clear theoretical framework[ 12], incorporating development work from the fields of microbiology, prescribing, education, communication, and behavioural sciences[ 13].
This study builds on a considerable amount of development work and integrates practice antibiotic prescribing and antimicrobial resistance data with innovative developments in the fields of microbiology, prescribing, education, communication and behavioural sciences, into a single, yet flexible intervention.
Other issues identified by inspectors included insufficient checks on patients' identity, poor recording of medical histories, inappropriate medicines being prescribed and lack of communication with the patient's GP.
During this time period, most patients were prescribed tamoxifen daily (personal communication, Dr. Nguyen Dinh Tung, Oncology Department, Hue Central Hospital).
General practitioners trained in enhanced communication skills prescribed antibiotics to 27% of patients compared with 54% in the no training group (P<0.01).
General practitioners using the C reactive protein point of care test and who were also trained in communication skills prescribed antibiotics to 23% of participants compared with 67% in the usual care group (table 4).
