Publication:

Awareness of rational use of medicines among interns at rural teaching hospital

Background The concern of switching irrational towards rational prescribing behaviour by prescriber impacts the patient compliance. Thereby an attempt to bring down the drug resistance is possible. Aim and objective of the study was to know the knowledge and practices Rational prescription behaviour in medical interns (MBBS 2012 batch) at Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS), BG Nagara.

Methods Observational cross sectional validated questionnaire based study on Rational Use of Medicines (RUM) was administered to Interns (n=75) included both males and females (MBBS 2012 batch) at AIMS during March-April 2018.

Results Both the gender had similar knowledge on RUM. 32 (42.67%) male and 43 (57.33%) female interns participated and 88% were aware of term “Essential drug”. Though 61.33% were prescribing rationally, they lacked in terms of listing National essential drug list and steps involved in selecting “P-drug”. Only 4% rightly defined RUM. 92% agreed that RUM minimizes ADR incidence. 90.67% believed that RUM would reduce the development of drug resistance. And 85.33% were in opinion that doctors should use his/her gained knowledge despite of Medical representative advice to bring the justice towards RUM in practice before prescribing.

Conclusions Rational use of medicine in interns should be assessed periodically on prescribing knowledge and skills during their training to minimize prescribing and clinical errors.