Abstract

“PRESCRIBING KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE, PRACTICE OF INTERNS AND POST-GRADUATES OF A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL IN INDIA”

Shailesh Mundhava*, UshaLalwani and Ajita Pillai

ABSTRACT

Objectives: To assess the impact of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics teaching during MBBS course in imparting rational prescribing skills to interns and postgraduates (PG)of a tertiary care hospital. Methods: A total of 123 interns and PG students were asked to fill a structured questionnaire that sought information regarding their undergraduate training in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, prescribing habits, commonly consulted drug information sources, any perceived deficiencies in their undergraduate clinical pharmacology teaching and sought feedback regarding improvement in the teaching methods. Results: Majority of the (94%) of participants said that they were taught prescription writing in undergraduate pharmacologyteaching; 47% of participants rated their prescribing knowledge at graduation as average, 37% good, 6% excellent, 7% poor, and 3% very poor; 33%felt that their training didn’t prepare them to prescribe safely, 47%felt that their training didn’t prepare them to prescribe rationally. More than half of the participants (58%) felt they had some specific problems in writing a prescription during internship, while 84% thought undergraduate teaching should be improved. Conclusion: Half of the interns and postgraduates felt that they do not have good knowledge in prescribing medicines and majority felt that the curriculum needs to be modified to encompass this training.

Keywords: prescribing knowledge, CPT, medical education, undergraduate medical curriculum.