Assessment of Prescription Writing Skills and Impact of an Educational Intervention on Safe Prescribing among the First-year Postgraduate Medical Students of Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Background:The main goal of the pharmacology curriculum is to enhance the prescription writing skills of the students and minimize the errors. This study evaluates the prescription writing skills of the first-year postgraduate (PG) student and need for emphasis on prescription writing during the various phases of learning process in medical undergraduates (UGs). Aims and objectives: The prime objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of the PG students to write a prescription and to assess the effectiveness of intervention on appropriate prescription writing. Materials and methods:The study included 58 PG students who were given pre-evaluated questionnaire addressing the issues of prescription writing and were also asked to write a prescription for a common ailment. An educational interventional session was conducted. Post-session students were asked to write prescription for the same case scenario. Their prescription (both pre-session and post-session) and feedback questionnaire were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics and the parameters were expressed in percentages. Results: A widespread lacuna was observed in the prescription writing skills of the PG students. Forty-nine percent of participants felt that their UG training had not prepared them for prescribing properly. Only, 17%, 7%, 5%, and 27% had written prescriber name, qualification, registration number, and signature, respectively. Patient name, age, gender, and address were not written in 69%, 73%, and 93% of the prescriptions. There was a significant improvement in all the above areas after the educational intervention. Handwriting was legible and comprehendible in 98% of the prescriptions. Conclusion:Our study concluded that educational intervention had improved the prescription writing skills of the first-year PG students. Therefore, such reinforcement sessions should be held at regular interval during the various phases of UG and PG teaching.