ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Paediatric patients frequently encounter medication errors caused by the requirement for individualised drug dose estimates based on weight, age variance, and drug pharmacokinetics. One thing contributing to drug dosing errors is the lack of healthcare personnel's knowledge of paediatric drug dosing. The present study aimed to evaluate the knowledge and perception regarding the workshop on paediatric drug dosing among undergraduate pharmacy students. METHOD: A prospective pre-post study was conducted. A virtual workshop on paediatric drug dosing was designed and developed by the clinical pharmacy lecturer from Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) for pharmacy students. An online questionnaire with 15 questions regarding knowledge of paediatric drug dosing and perception of the virtual workshop on paediatric drug dosing was used to evaluate pharmacy students' knowledge pre- and post-workshop. RESULT: Twenty-six students took part in the study (100%). In the pre-workshop on paediatric drug dosing calculation, most students had poor knowledge of the paediatric drug dosing calculation, scored 8 out of 15, 26.92% between 9 to 11 and only 11.54% scored ≥ 12. There was a statistically significant difference in median knowledge score between pre- and post-workshop (p< 0.05). Among the students, 73.08% stated that they strongly agreed that the online workshop attracted their attention and 76.92% of students strongly agreed that they were able to calculate paediatric drug dosing after joining the online workshop. CONCLUSION: Results demonstrate that pharmacy students have insufficient knowledge of paediatric drug dosing calculations. Virtual workshop is one strategy that could improve the pharmacy students' knowledge.
