Journal of Research in Medical Education & Ethics

Internship is a phase of training wherein a graduate is expected to conduct actual practice of medical and health care and acquire skills under supervision so that he/she may become capable of functioning independently. The curriculum mainly focused on the pre internship training; there are no clear guidelines on what to train during the internship period. The involvement of the interns some time very less during their internship posting due to various reasons. It is observed that interns lack the ability to tackle common emergencies and there prescription on such occasions falls below the standard. Case sheets are important document of the patient management, it will contain the prescription of the drugs investigation and the interventions in the real context. Knowing the content, timing, indication and contraindication of these drugs and the interventions will provide an idea in the management of the disease.

The interns are divided into two groups by convenient sampling methods. Both group are advised to read the Chapter 5 Global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease (GOLD) Chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) guidelines on management of exacerbation 2015. Out of which one group is given the additional task of detailed analysis of two prescription of an inpatient case sheet of COPD Acute exacerbation.

A total of 63 students participated in the study, 33 students included in the interventional group and 30 in the control group. The marks of all students are entered separately for MCQ, the quality of prescription and total marks after combining the two.

This study clearly shows a statistically significant improvement in prescription writing skills and the knowledge of the interns following prescription analysis.