Assessment of prescription writing skills among undergraduate medical students: A cross-sectional study.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51168/sjhrafrica.v6i12.2174Keywords:
Prescription skills, medical students, Competency in prescribingAbstract
Background:
Accurate prescription writing is a vital clinical skill introduced during the second phase of the undergraduate medical curriculum, particularly within Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Although students receive formal instruction during this period, concerns persist regarding their ability to apply these skills effectively in practice, even at this early stage of training.
Objective:
To assess the prescription writing skills of second-year undergraduate medical students and identify common deficiencies in their performance.
Methods:
A cross-sectional study was conducted among second-year MBBS students. Participants were given a clinical case scenario and instructed to write a complete prescription. Each prescription was evaluated for essential components, including patient details, drug name, dose, frequency, route of administration, and prescriber information.
Results:
Out of the total participants, 76% scored in the moderate range for overall prescription writing, while only 18% achieved high scores. Drug-related components were moderately addressed by 58% of students, but prescriber and additional components showed poorer performance. Specifically, 35% scored low in prescriber-related and 51% in additional components. These findings reveal gaps in completeness and adherence to prescription standards.
Conclusion:
Despite formal teaching in Pharmacology, second-year undergraduate medical students show considerable gaps in prescription-writing skills.
Recommendation:
These findings suggest a need for repeated practice sessions, formative assessments, and integration of clinical context to enhance competency and ensure safe prescribing habits early in medical education.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Sankeerth Chanamolu, Kavitha Dongerkery, Sonal Signapurkar, Pradnya Deolekar, Jennee Moriangthem, Prateek DT, Yash Wazir, Sweta Bhagat, Navya Movva, Abhay P Nambiar
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