Prescribing safely
Prepare and discuss a prescription, using current drug information and supervision.
Clinical learning outcomes: Awaiting named clinical review.
What you should learn
- Check the information needed for a safe prescription and monitoring plan.
- Explain a proposed medicine choice and ask for review before it is used.
Recognise and explain
- Students do not independently prescribe. Practice prescriptions need feedback; any locally permitted preparation of an actual prescription must be checked and signed by a registered doctor.
On your placement
Agree the activity and supervision with the clinical team. For patient-facing learning, seek permission and respect the patient’s comfort and care needs.
- Review the patient’s medicines, allergies and relevant factors with your supervisor.
- Use the approved formulary or local guidance to prepare a practice prescription.
- Check calculations and explain the route, monitoring and review plan.
- Compare the draft with the clinician’s final decision and ask about discrepancies.
Start here
MLA: a safe prescribing method
Use a systematic prescribing method with a supervisor; the prescription is only part of the task.
MLA: prescribing practice resources
Work through a prescribing task and ask for feedback.
Current guidance
GMC: deciding if it is safe to prescribe
Use paragraphs 19 and 26–39 to check the information, medicines history and patient discussion needed before proposing treatment. Students still need the supervision described below.
GMC student assistantships: tasks and supervision
Read how student tasks and supervision are agreed, including checking and signing prescriptions.
GMC practical skills and procedures
Check the task-specific graduate expectation and discuss your current supervision with the placement team.
Discuss
Assessing and treating acute pain
Choose a proportionate analgesic plan, check contraindications and make reassessment part of the prescription.
On your next shift
Choose one recurring prescribing check to make explicit in your next supervised medication review.
How this relates to GMC graduate outcomes and the MLA
These are St Emlyn’s learning connections, not a claim that this page covers every national requirement.
Clinical and professional capabilities: Clinical assessment; Communication; Recognising limits and seeking help.
Practical skills: Prescribing safely.
Suggested placement activities informed by the GMC framework. No new procedure-specific supervision level is assigned here.
Explore the student placement programme
Student practice and graduate expectations
About this resource and its review
A St Emlyn’s guide to learning Emergency Medicine during undergraduate placements. It is not an official medical-school or GMC curriculum. Your medical school’s curriculum and assessment requirements take precedence.
National foundations: GMC Outcomes for Graduates, the practical-skills supplement and the MLA content map applying from September 2026.
Framework checked: 8 October 2026. This is a source check, not clinical sign-off.
Clinical learning outcomes: awaiting named clinical review.
The four learning routes are St Emlyn’s groupings. The six interconnected MLA domains remain part of the official content map.