1 Prescribing competence of junior doctors – does it add up?

2 Prescribing errors complicate a significant number of paediatric admissions. Ongoing training and monitoring of prescribing competency in junior doctors has occurred in Cardiff since 2001, alongside national measures aimed at improving training and competency. Aim: Ongoing monitoring of junior doctors ’ prescribing competency to assess the effect of these national and local initiatives. Methods: Junior doctors receive training and subsequent assessment on prescribing competency at induction. A 1-hour bleep-free session concerning paediatric prescribing precedes completion of 4 prescribing tasks. BNFc and calculators are provided. Those scoring 0 or 1 are retrained before prescribing is permitted. Our previously published data of doctors between 2001 and 2004 was compared to assessment in 2007. Results: Thirty junior doctors were assessed in 2007 (32 in 2001-4). All 4 question