Assessing Prescription Writing Skills of House Officers in Dental Teaching Hospitals of Karachi, Pakistan

Introduction

A prescription is ‘a written order, which includes detailed instructions of what medicine should be given to whom, in what formulation and dose, by what route, when, how frequently, and for how long’.

Aim

To determine competency and knowledge gained during undergraduate dental studies regarding clinical pharmacology and therapeutics (CPT) by house officers in the form of prescription writing skill assessment.

Materials and methods

A survey form with a clinical scenario was designed and distributed to house officers working in nine different dental teaching hospitals. It required a response in the form of a complete prescription. Out of 360 forms distributed, 200 were returned. Each form was assessed for all the 20 required parameters and scored accordingly. Data was analyzed by using SPSS 19.

Results

Frequency (92.5%) and route (93%) of drug administration were the most commonly listed, followed by dose (82.9%), symbol Rx (65.2%), duration (60.4%), doctor's signature (59.3%), patient's name (52.4%), patient's age (44.9%) and date (44.4%).

Parameters that were least or not listed include hospital address (0%), refill information (0%), instructions for labeling (0.5%), quantity to be dispensed (1.1%), patients address (1.1%), professional degree and registration number (1.1%), doctor's name (1.6%), diagnosis (7%), hospital name (22%), appropriateness of drug (26.2%) and patients sex (26.2%).

Conclusion

The current study concluded that prescription writing skills of a majority of house surgeons were deficient in important details.

How to cite this article

Wali A, Ali A, Siddiqui TM, Jafri H. Assessing Prescription Writing Skills of House Officers in Dental Teaching Hospitals of Karachi, Pakistan. World J Dent 2012;3(4):294-296.