Prescribing knowledge of the intern doctors in India

Abstract

Poor prescribing is not uncommon in India. Various drug categories like antibiotics and NSAIDS are prescribed without thinking much about resistance and adverse drug reactions. Prescription errors are very common, specially with fresh doctors. The basic problem which contributes to the irrational prescribing is the medical students are not adequately instructed1. Teaching of pharmacology in medical colleges doesn’t take much care of prescription writing. In India medical student start writing prescription during internship. Mostly there prescriptions are not supervised and they are often left to fend for themselves during their training2.Thus, those who are less knowledgeable in rational prescribing continue to make medication errors. Because of this, risk of adverse drug reactions and polypharmacy is increased. Young doctors, therefore, need a firm grounding in the principles of rational prescribing.