Knowledge, attitude and practices related to drug prescription among medical officers and postgraduate residents in B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences

Background: Pharmacology, being both basic and applied science, forms the backbone of rational therapeutics. Traditional teaching of pharmacology is teacher centered with emphasis on learning the facts on drugs. Inadequate knowledge may cause irrational prescribing which leads to huge loss of lives and money. Objective was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practices among doctors regarding prescription. Methods: A semi-structured questionnaire was used among medical officers and postgraduate residents to collect the data regarding their undergraduate training in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, prescribing habits, commonly consulted drug information sources and any perceived deficiencies in their undergraduate clinical pharmacology teaching. Descriptive statistics were calculated. Results: Out of 116 respondents, 69 were males and mean age was 28.8±2.3 years. Ninety-eight (84.5%) participants were aware about teaching of prescription writing in their undergraduate course and 101 (87.1%) participants knew the parts of prescription. One hundred (86.2%) participants considered safety as the most important aspects of prescribing a drug. One hundred and four (89.7%) participants thought that undergraduate pharmacology training taught them to prescribe safely. One hundred and eleven (95.7%) thought that the undergraduate pharmacology teaching should be improved. Out of 116 participants, 84 (72.4%) had encountered problems while prescribing during their internship. Sixty-eight (58.6%) participants used internet as a source of information about safety, efficacy and cost of drugs for prescription. Ninety-five (81.9%) participants prescribed supplemental vitamins and irons according to patient need. Conclusions: Majority of participants felt that they do have good knowledge in prescribing medicines and the training on prescription writing should be reinforced.