Building collaborative prescribers: development and analysis of a novel simulation-based role exchange education programme between pharmacy and medical students

Undergraduate curricula across a number of healthcare professions have increased their focus on interprofessional education. From 2026 all pharmacy graduates in the UK will be independent prescribers, which will require them to develop skills of patient history taking and clinical assessment. Likewise, medical graduates will face increasingly complex prescribing challenges in an aging population with chronic illnesses, polypharmacy and personalised medicine. Developing these skills via collaborative practice is essential to meet the healthcare challenges of the future. We developed a novel interprofessional educational programme focused on medical admissions for final year medical and pharmacy students in a teaching hospital between January and March 2025. We utilised the concept of role exchange in simulation to foster development of mutual skills as well as enhanced professional identity formation and unique role recognition. We researched participant’s ability to work collaboratively, their skill development and their perceptions of IPL using a mixed methods approach. Pre and post course questionnaires using the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) self-assessment tool were completed by participants in addition to questions on skill acquisition and free text questions regarding their experiences of the programme. Statistical analysis using independent t-testing was performed and a summary of narrative data was used to analyse the qualitative data. The cohort size was 59 students (25 medical and 34 pharmacy). The pre-course response rate was 92% (n = 23) for medicine and 88% (n = 30) for pharmacy and the post course response rate was 88% (n = 22) for medicines and 91% (n = 31) for pharmacy. A total of 106 responses were analysed. A significant improvement was observed across: Interprofessional Values, Interprofessional Interactions and total score. Review of student comments identified several benefits and areas for future development. Students rated the course highly and 96% (n = 51) believed that they would be able to use the skills and knowledge gained in their future practice. Authentic simulated scenarios designed to align with professional practice, facilitated by role exchange, improves interprofessional collaboration and mutually develops skills in history taking and prescribing. This programme supports new standards for education in both medicine and pharmacy but delivery remains challenging due to its resource-intensive nature.