Integrative Pharmacotherapy Teaching with Objective Structured Pharmacotherapy Examination

Abstract

Writing an appropriate prescription is one of the main competencies of medical doctors. Studies reveal that medication error is still a significant issue in health service, and many efforts have been done to minimise this through trainings. Integrative pharmacotherapy is a module delivered for medical students in clinical clerkship, which is adopted and developed from the World Health Organization Guide to Good Prescribing. The aim of the study was to examine the effect of the module on pre-test and post-test scores which consists of 17 clinical cases. The study was done in the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Kristen Indonesia, East Jakarta from July to November 2018. Eighty one subjects were randomly selected from the data of 100 students who were screened from 200 students based on the exclusion criteria. There was an increase of post-test score which was statistically significant compared to pre-test score, from 42.07±12.45 to 58.47±8.54 (p=0.000, CI -19.36;-13.45). There were 69 (>85%) students having grade D and E in pre-test, but the number decreased to 18 (22,2%) out of 81 subjects in post-test. Both grade C and B students increased from 13.5% to 70.4% and 1% to 7%, respectively. Most of the students were first entries into clinical clerkship, thus, their pre-test scores were very low since they had not had the clinical experience yet. However, at the end of the clerkship, there was a significant increase on their knowledge on pharmacotherapy and prescription for particular diseases. An outcome study to measure the retention and to examine their success on the final competency examination should be done.