A competency-based medical education on personal drug selection among medical students: a prospective, cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: This study was conducted to know the students’ views regarding the personal drug (P-drug) concept in the rational prescription of drugs and also to give them training on creating and using personal drug concepts. Methods: The 60 medical students (5th semester) divided into four groups were involved voluntarily three-phase, questionnaire-based, and prospective study. In the first and second phases, students were taught and asked to derive P-drug using different standard textbooks and CIMS by analyzing the efficacy, safety, cost, and convenience of drugs used for stable angina pectoris. The third phase was designed to know the student’s perceptions regarding the exercise and difficulties faced in the process of P-drug selection. It contained demographic and 12 questions with the answer using the Likert scale.Results: Students selected tab. isosorbide dinitrate sublingual as a P-drug in terms of efficacy, safety, cost, and convenience. The 96.6% (58 out of 60) responded to the questionnaire. The overall median score was 2 and interquartile range was 2-5 (IQR 2-5). The majority (73% or 44) of students were in favour of introducing the process of selection of P-drug in the undergraduate pharmacology curriculum.Conclusions: The P-drug selection exercise helped students to understand the differences among various drugs used for the treatment of stable angina pectoris and gave them a strong foundation for developing rational use of the medicine in their future careers as a doctor.