PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Brogan N Guest
AU  - Chanceeth Chandrakanthan
AU  - Kate Bascombe
AU  - Jeannie Watkins
TI  - Preparing physician associates to prescribe: evidence, educational frameworks and pathways
AID  - 10.7861/fhj.2021-0166
DP  - 2022 Mar 01
TA  - Future Healthcare Journal
PG  - 21--24
VI  - 9
IP  - 1
4099  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/9/1/21.short
4100  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/9/1/21.full
SO  - Future Healthc J2022 Mar 01; 9
AB  - There are approximately 2,850 physician associates (PAs) in the UK, and this number is growing. PAs are unable to prescribe due to an absence of statutory regulation and necessary prescribing legislation.While PAs cannot prescribe, they must have an adequate level of pharmacology knowledge to safely manage patients. There is an expectation that this is taught as part of the core syllabus on PA programmes.The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) recently announced the introduction of statutory regulation of Medical Associate Professionals (MAPs) that include PAs under the General Medical Council. With the introduction of regulation, PAs may be able to prescribe as part of their role. A working group is considering how this might be achieved in terms of education and supervision requirements, delivery of the training and scope of practice.This paper explores the current approach to delivering pharmacology across UK PA programmes. We evaluate what constitutes acceptable training and assessment, and determine if programmes have the capacity to prepare students for prescribing rights. We compare UK PA programmes with those in the USA, with the V300 Independent/Supplementary Prescribing course and with the Prescribing Safety Assessment examination.