A study of teaching module on intramuscular drug administration and communication skills in pharmacology according to CBME curriculum

ABSTRACT

Background: Theory classes in pharmacology are taking care of teaching of various oral and parenteral routes of drug administration, mainly focusing on knowledge domain but soft and psychomotor skills are under taught or deficient in undergraduate students. Demonstrating correct method of intramuscular route of drug administration and communication skills as introduced by competency based medical education (CBME) competency-based curriculum, will help in early acquisition of the skills and minimize the errors in administration. Aim and Objectives: The aim of the study is to teach the IM drug administration and communication skills to undergraduate students in pharmacology and to evaluate the perception of students and teachers toward new CBME curriculum. Materials and Methods: Correct technique of intramuscular drug administration was demonstrated on mannequins after going through the videos of IM. Students were told to perform it independently on mannequins. Perception of students and staff members were collected with pre-validated questionnaire provided after the practical teaching hour. Results: In our study, the majority of students (96%) felt that learning IM route of drug administration correctly will help in managing the patients in their near future days. They were well advanced in communicating with patients regarding usage of medications and were (86%) also in favor of introduction of this experiment in UG curriculum. Conclusions: Our study concluded that IM teaching technique introduced by CBME curriculum in practical classes was well accepted by students and were more confident in soft skills and psychomotor skills at the end of the study.