Implementation of rational drug therapy teaching learning module via project work in second year undergraduate medical students

Abstract

Introduction: Teaching rational drug therapy (RDT) to future Indian medical graduates is important and forms a core area of pharmacology. Objectives: To develop and implement RDT teaching module and to evaluate its effectiveness in second year undergraduate students. To evaluate its impact on the knowledge and reasoning skills of students via their ability to perform prescription audit of real-life prescriptions. To obtain feedback from students and faculty regarding the RDT module. Methods: A pre-test on core concepts of RDT was taken. RDT concepts were taught in the form of interactive lectures followed by project work involving two components; OPD component and ward component. Totally, 40 students collected four prescriptions each from OPDs from major specialities for prescription audit by preset criteria. One indoor patient per student was selected from wards. This patient was followed from admission till discharge. The students prepared a write up on rationality of treatment taking help of faculty. This was called the project. Evaluation of this project was done on preset criteria involving presentation, content and viva voce from a total of 100 marks. This was followed by post-test. Results: There was a 352% gain in students’ knowledge and reasoning skills based on pre- and post-test scores. P-value was < 0.001 on the basis of paired T test. More than 95% students felt there was gain in knowledge and it was useful. Conclusion: Involving students in learning RDT concepts via project work had an impact on their knowledge and reasoning skills.