Abstract
A fundamental skill in the practice of medicine is the ability to safely and rationally prescribe drugs. This research aims to estimate the percentage of newly registered medical officers who reported confidence in writing prescriptions. A questionnaire was distributed to 200 medical officers employed at public health tertiary institutions throughout Trinidad and Tobago. These comprised medical interns (provisionally registered) and house officers (fully registered). Participants indicated their confidence or reluctance to prescribe with or without supervision. Estimates and comparisons between the two groups were obtained using Fisher's exact and Chi-squared tests. The response rate was 73.5%. More medical interns (68%; n = 41) than house officers (56%; n = 42) stated that they were 'Confident' or 'Very Confident' (p = 0.126) to prescribe. Approximately eighty-four per cent (83.6%; n = 51) of medical interns and 89.2% (n = 66) of house officers felt confident to prescribe antibiotics (p = 0.465). A greater percentage of medical interns (84.2%; n = 50) than house officers (66.7%; n = 49) agreed that undergraduate training equipped them to write prescriptions safely and rationally (c² = 6.17, df = 1; p = 0.012). While most recent medical graduates felt confident about their prescription writing, there is a need to objectively measure this ability.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
