3.8 Strengths and Limitations
The strength of this study resides within the premise that it seeks to understand the mindset, in the real world, of both doctors and pharmacists, with varying levels of experience, associated with prescribing decisions on the AMU. The choice of an acute medical unit as the prescribing forum was advantageous because an admission to hospital presents an opportunity to review medication with potential to influence future prescribing decisions by the GP in the community. However, the study has a number of limitations including the fact that it was carried out at a single site, with a series of common presentations which may not, therefore, be representative of all prescribing situations, or of all AMUs throughout the UK. The focus group was conducted retrospectively, at least one day after the actual decisions had been made and therefore did not represent ‘real-time’ thought processes at the moment of prescribing or the thoughts of the actual prescriber.
Further research is needed that would ideally reflect the individual thought processes of prescribers and advisors prospectively at the time decisions are made and in samples of patients with a wider variety of diagnoses and in different acute hospital settings.