Objective: This study was undertaken to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of self-medication among first-year medical students of the Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain. Subjects and Methods: This was an anonymous, questionnaire-based, descriptive study. A prevalidated questionnaire, containing open-ended and close-ended questions, was administered to the subjects. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 12 and the results expressed as counts and percentages. Results: Out of the 134 respondents, 43 (32.1%) were males and 91 (67.9%) were females; their mean age in years ± SD was 18.01 ± 0.78. The respondents’ knowledge about appropriate self-medication was poor, but knowledge of the benefits and risks of self-medication was adequate. The respondents found self-medication to be time-saving, economical, convenient and providing quick relief in common illnesses. Important disadvantages of self-medication mentioned were the risk of making a wrong diagnosis, inappropriate drug use and adverse effects. The majority (76.9%) of the respondents had a positive attitude favoring self-medication. Self-medication was practiced by 44.8% of the subjects. The most common indications for self-medication were to relieve the symptoms of headache (70.9%), cough, cold and sore throat (53.7%), stomachache (32.8%) and fever (29.9%). Analgesics (81.3%) were the most common drugs used for self-medication. The practice of self-medication was appropriate in only 14.2% of cases. Conclusion: Knowledge about appropriate self-medication was poor, attitude towards self-medication was positive, and the practice of self-medication was common and often inappropriate.
About half of the studied population used CAM. The population estimates of use of CAM are within the range reported elsewhere. It reflects an increasing popularity of CAM in Pakistan as well. Combined use of biomedicine with CAM was common and often patients did not reveal the use of CAM to the biomedicine practitioners.
Medical school training for students in pharmacotherapy is suboptimal and junior doctors are not confident to prescribe drugs. This study evaluated the effectiveness of an optional educational intervention on prescribing skill of pre-clerkship medical students in a problem-based learning (PBL) program. Performance was assessed in seven end-unit objective structured practical examinations (OSPE). Physician-related prescription components (PRCs) and drug-related prescription components (DRCs) were assessed. The performance of students who attended the intervention sessions (attendees) and non-attendees was compared. Approximately half of the students attended the sessions. PRCs were written appropriately by most of the students. DRCs were written less competently by both attendees and non-attendees, specifically the dosage form, quantity to be dispensed and directions. Performance on individual DRCs was significantly better for attendees compared to non-attendees. The mean total score for all prescription components of attendees was significantly greater than that of non-attendees. The percentage of high achievers was significantly greater for attendees. A positive correlation was found between student attendance and the total score. An optional educational intervention during the preclerkship phase is an important determinant of prescribing performance of medical students.
‘One ought to choose something very deliberately, and be faithful to that.’ Isabel Archer is a young, intelligent, and spirited American girl, determined to relish her first experience of Europe. She rejects two eligible suitors in her fervent commitment to liberty and independence, declaring that she will never marry. Thanks to the generosity of her devoted cousin Ralph, she is free to make her own choice about her destiny. Yet in the intoxicating worlds of Paris, Florence, and Rome, her fond illusions of self-reliance are twisted by the machinations of her friends and apparent allies. What had seemed to be a vista of infinite promise steadily closes around her and becomes instead a ‘house of suffocation’. Considered by many as one of the finest novels in the English language, this is Henry James’s most poised achievement, written at the height of his fame in 1881. It is at once a dramatic Victorian tale of betrayal and a wholly modern psychological study of a woman caught in a web of relations she only comes to understand too late. This edition reproduces the revised New York Edition, with James’s own Preface.
Background
The relationship between large-group classroom attendance by students and test achievement in problem-based learning (PBL) curricula is unclear. This study examined the correlation between attendance at resource sessions (hybrid lectures in the PBL curriculum) and test scores achieved in pharmacology and determined whether the score achieved was related to student gender.
Methods
A cross-sectional observational study over one academic year of 1404 pre-clerkship medical students was performed. Class attendance during pharmacology resource sessions and MCQ test scores achieved in pharmacology were analysed.
Results
The percentage of students’ attendance in resource sessions declined over three years of the programme, from 78.7 ± 27.5 in unit I to 22.1 ± 35.6 (mean ± SD) in unit IX. A significant but weakly positive correlation was evident between attendance and achievement in pharmacology (
r
= 0.280;
p
< 0.0001). The mean score of the students who attended > 50% of the resource sessions was significantly higher (
p
< 0.0001). Students who attended ≤50% were more likely to achieve lower
tertile
scores. The mean score achieved and the number of higher
tertile
scorers were higher among students who attended > 50% of the resource sessions. Although female students’ attendance was significantly higher, no significant gender-related differences in either mean scores or top grades achieved were found.
Conclusions
In a PBL curriculum, the classroom attendance of students in pharmacology declined during the pre-clerkship phase. A weak positive correlation was found between attendance and academic achievement, as measured by MCQ test scores. Factors other than motivation and attendance may confound gender-based academic performance and merit further research.
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