Assessment of the Prescribing Knowledge, Attitude and Skills of Medical Students and Interns in a Large Teaching Hospital of Southern India

Abstract

There is a world wide concern among health authorities regarding the lack of safe and rational prescribing skills and knowledge among the new medical graduates. This study was undertaken to assess the undergraduate medical students' and interns' attitude and knowledge regarding safe prescribing and to examine their prescribing skills. Fresh interns, 130 in number who had recently graduated and 148 medical undergraduate students were asked to complete an anonymous, selfadministered, structured questionnaire about safe prescribing. As a part of the questionnaire they were also supposed to write a prescription for a patient suffering from common cold and fever. The data so obtained was analysed using simple descriptive statistics. Where relevant Chi-square test was used to determine any significant difference. On final analysis safety and efficacy of a drug were considered to be most important factors deserving consideration. Non official drug formularies (CIMS, IDR & Drug Index) were the most preferred source of information for 88 (75%) interns, while 46 (40%) students preferred textbooks and scientific journals. The average number of medications prescribed per prescription by the students and interns were 2.11 and 2.44 respectively. Antibiotics were unnecessarily prescribed by a large number of students (48(41.73%) versus 13(11.60%) p<0.001). The knowledge and attitudes of the students and interns were satisfactory. The main concern was regarding the students' unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics and their prescription writing skills which calls for our attention.