Teaching teachers in implementing PV undergraduate education

There is an increasing interest in integrating pharmacovigilance into undergraduate medical, pharmacy and nursing education. Our main goal for pharmacovigilance education at universities is that all future healthcare professionals are aware of their role in the safety and safe use of medicines, in order to deliver optimal patient care in pharmacotherapy. 

To enhance PV education in existing curricula and courses, an outline, resources and support for university teachers are needed. The Netherlands Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb, as a WHO collaborating centre for pharmacovigilance in education and patient reporting, has developed a Teach-the-Teacher training on PV education with the support of WHO. In different formats, the concept has been tried out in two countries, The Netherlands and Oman. 

Elements of the Teach-the-Teacher training: 
Target audience for Teach-the-Teacher (TtT) trainings are university staff and teachers who are already involved in pharmacology or pharmacotherapy teaching in undergraduates. Though background and level of familiarity with PV differs between teaching staff, types of schools, universities and countries, the basic elements of the TtT training can be similar in various settings. The basic elements include: preparing an overview on coverage of PV education in the current situation, providing background information on PV key aspects, sharing ideas and giving practical examples of transferable elements to students, and finally creating a plan for PV related educational activities that suit their own course or curriculum. 
Background information and resources on PV education can also be found on https://www.pv-education.org/.

Referene: van Eekeren R, Rolfes L, Koster AS, Magro L, Parthasarathi G, Al Ramimmy H, Schutte T, Tanaka D, van Puijenbroek E, Härmark L. What Future Healthcare Professionals Need to Know About Pharmacovigilance: Introduction of the WHO PV Core Curriculum for University Teaching with Focus on Clinical Aspects. Drug Saf. 2018 Nov;41(11):1003-1011.