Authors: A Akici S Kalaça M Z Gören A G Akkan A Karaalp D Demir Ü Uğurlu Ş Oktay
Publish Date: 2004/03/20
Volume: 60, Issue: 2, Pages: 75-82
Abstract
The aim of this study was to compare rational pharmacotherapy decisionmaking competency of interns finalyear medical students who had received rational pharmacotherapy education RPE with their classmates at another medical school and general practitioners GPs who had not been exposed to RPEA written objective structured clinical examination OSCE consisting of open and structured questions was given to all participants The participants were expected to make a treatment plan and prescribe for simple uncomplicated βhemolytic streptococcal tonsillitis and mildtomoderate essential hypertension patients explain their proposed treatment plans and reasons affecting their drug choice After the OSCE a questionnaire to assess knowledge of the rational use of drugs was given to the participantsFifty RPE+ interns 54 RPE− interns and 53 GPs participated in the study Mean scores of RPE+ interns were higher than those of GPs which were in turn found to be higher than those of RPE− interns for all cases The RPE+ interns scored the highest regarding all components of rational pharmacotherapy process for all cases of both indications However participants in all groups had higher scores for the structured questions compared with the corresponding open ones for both diseases Prescription analysis also revealed better results for RPE+ interns regarding the number of drugs/prescription and treatment costsThe present study demonstrated that the finalyear medical students interns markedly benefited from undergraduate RPE at the medical school in developing rational prescribing skills compared with their classmates from a medical school with traditional pharmacology education Interestingly they got higher scores than not only RPE− interns but also than the GPs participating in this study indicating the urgent need for continuous medical education programs in this field throughout the country for practicing GPsThe authors would like to thank Dr Yunus Emre Kocabaşoğlu for his advice regarding the study design Dr Ali Serdar Fak and Dr Lütfiye Mülazımoğlu for their help in preparation of the OSCE answer keys This study was supported by a grant from Marmara University Scientific Research Projects Commission 2000Sağlık HEA078/131200 Part of this work was presented at the 6th Congress of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics Istanbul Anyone who wants more information about this study including the opportunity to see the entire questionnaire is welcome to contact the corresponding author via email
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