Impact of problem-based pharmacotherapy course on the competence of rational prescribing of Sudanese undergraduate medical students

ABSTRACT

Prescription writing is a skill that almost every doctor will use several times a day. But are medical students effectively taught how to write a complete and accurate prescription? Most commonly the answer is no. There is increasing need for the rational use of medicines and the clearly appropriate prescribing is a key to achieve this. To find out whether a short training course of problem-based pharmacotherapy teaching, improves the competence of rational prescribing among medical students. All 6th year medical students [Batch 13], Omdurman Islamic university were randomly separated into intervention and control group. Students of intervention group were taught to choose P-drug for different diseases and how to apply this choice to specific patient problem, using the WHO- six steps problem solving approach. The competence of intervention group is significantly better than the control group p =0.011. The mean results of post test for intervention group was [3.4 +/- 4.5] and for the control group was [2.1 +/- 1.9]. Teaching medical students all basic knowledge about drugs does not guarantee rational prescribing. Additional short course of problem-based pharmacotherapy could be effective in improving prescribing skills among Sudanese medical students