ROLE OF UNDERGRADUATE CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY TEACHING IN RATIONAL PRESCRIBING: AN INTERNEE'S PERCEPTION

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Rational prescribing of drugs and good clinical practice are the most important factors which prepares an internee to be an efficient doctor. This can be expected only if an intern's clinical pharmacology knowledge is adequate. The aim of the study was to assess the clinical pharmacology (CP) knowledge of an internee and to know how far he is equipped to prescribe the drug rationally. METHODS: All the internees of Sri Siddhartha medical college were administered with a semi structured questionnaire. The questionnaire sought information about demographics, undergraduate CP teaching, experiences of adverse drug reaction and drug interaction and confidence in drug prescription. Suggestions regarding improvising under graduate CP teaching were also enlisted. RESULTS: It was observed that out of 66 subjects recruited only 46(70%) possessed average knowledge about clinical pharmacology and 41(62.1%) disagreed that undergraduate CP teaching had equipped them to prescribe. Internees were comfortable in prescribing certain drugs like antacids and antiulcer drugs 63(95.5%), laxatives 51(77.3%), and vitamins and minerals 59(89.4%) without supervision. However majority of them lacked confidence of prescribing to special groups like pediatric, geriatric and patients with liver and renal disorder. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that internees lacked confidence in prescribing for special groups Hence there is a need to vigorously train them in clinical pharmacology during their graduation.