Development and evaluation of an online medication safety module for medical students at a rural teaching hospital: the Winchester District Memorial Hospital

OBJECTIVE: To design, implement and assess an online learning module for third-year and fourth-year medical students addressing medication safety. DESIGN: This study was a prospective, parallel, open-label, randomised controlled trial with two arms: (1) a control arm in which students were given five articles to read about medication safety, and (2) an intervention arm in which students were given access to an interactive web-based learning module on medication safety. Pretesting and post-testing were done online to evaluate change in medication safety knowledge. RESULTS: Ten students completed the study in the intervention group (online module) and six students completed the study in the control group. The increase in score obtained on the post-test, relative to the pretest, was 15.4% in the group who completed the online module and 2.0% in the control group (difference=13.4%, 95% CI 0.5% to 26.2%, p=0.04). CONCLUSION: Students who completed an online educational tool about medication safety demonstrated a significantly greater increase in knowledge than those who completed a few readings. Online learning modules can be a convenient and effective means of teaching safe prescribing concepts to medical trainees.