Development and validation of an instrument to assess the prescribing readiness of medical students in Malaysia

Pauline Siew Mei Lai; Si Mui Sim; Siew Siang Chua; Choo Hock Tan; Chirk Jenn Ng; Francis Ifejika Achike; Cheong Lieng Teng

doi:10.1186/s12909-015-0433-z

Table 3 Prescribing readiness of final- year medical students in a public and a private university

From: Development and validation of an instrument to assess the prescribing readiness of medical students in Malaysia

		Public university (n = 123) [%]			Private university (n = 53) [%]
Domain	Item	Too little	About right	Too much	Too little	About right	Too much	p-value
Undergraduate learning opportunities	1. Lectures on the basic pharmacology of drugs	10.6	83.7	5.7	42.6	51.9	5.6	<0.001*
	2. Lectures on the use of drugs in clinical practice	50.4	49.6	0	72.2	25.9	1.9	0.006*
	3. Small group tutorials about drugs and prescribing	72.4	26.8	0.8	90.7	9.3	0	0.024*
	4. Problem based learning about drugs	73.2	24.4	2.4	75.9	24.1	0	0.507
	5. Workshops on prescribing issues	74.6	24.6	0.8	85.2	14.8	0	0.267
	6. Electronic learning opportunities	68.6	27.3	4.1	65.4	34.6	0	0.238
		0–5 times	6–10 times	>10 times	0–5 times	6–10 times	>10 times
Hands-on clinical skills practice	7. Write up a hospital drug cardex	90.2	8.1	1.6	84.9	9.4	5.7	0.314
	8. A teaching session on calculating drug doses	92.7	6.5	0.8	85.2	11.1	3.7	0.213
	9. Set up a drug infusion pump	92.7	6.5	0.8	92.6	7.4	0	0.785
	10. Prepare and give a parenteral drug injection	20.3	9.8	69.9	68.5	20.4	11.1	<0.001*
	11. Set up and give a bag of intravenous fluid	60.2	22.8	17.1	54.7	18.9	26.4	0.355
		Never or yearly	Monthly	Weekly or daily	Never or yearly	Monthly	Weekly or daily
Information gathering behaviour	12. Web based resources	56.6	27.9	15.6	33.3	22.2	44.4	<0.001*
	13. Online medical school resources	48.8	35.8	15.4	33.3	31.5	35.2	0.011*
	14. Your own textbook	5.7	48.0	46.3	9.3	24.1	66.7	0.012*
	15. Your own BNF or equivalent	41.3	28.4	30.3	17.0	30.2	52.8	0.004*
	16. Library resources	82.1	13.7	4.3	31.4	33.3	35.3	<0.001*
	Factors	Strongly disagree/disagree	Somewhat agree	Agree/ strongly agree	Strongly disagree/ disagree	Somewhat agree	Agree/ strongly agree
Factors affecting prescribing skills	17. No lecture or formal teaching on prescribing drugs	39.0	41.5	19.5	20.4	48.1	31.5	0.036*
	18. Amount of knowledge on drugs needed to be learnt is too much during each clinical posting	39.3	32.0	28.7	33.3	31.5	35.2	0.645
	19. Will not be questioned on prescribing drugs in the final examination	60.7	25.4	13.9	70.4	22.2	7.4	0.359
	20. Many clinical teachers do not explain about their rationale for their choice of drugs prescribed	30.3	40.2	29.5	40.7	40.7	18.5	0.230
	21. Not enough of reinforcement of pharmacology knowledge in the clinical years	12.3	50.0	37.7	20.8	41.5	37.7	0.310
	22. Not necessary for me to know how to prescribe drugs before graduation	62.6	26.0	11.4	72.2	22.2	5.6	0.355
	23. Lack of consensus among clinical teachers on drug prescribing	25.2	62.6	12.2	26.4	54.7	18.9	0.457
	24. Preclinical learning on pharmacology didn’t have enough clinical relevance	26.0	35.0	39.0	27.8	37.0	35.2	0.889
	25. No actual practice, experience or emphasis on prescribing in clinical years	10.6	43.1	46.3	22.2	42.6	35.2	0.095
	26. Limited exposure to information that can help in making rational drug choice	40.7	43.9	15.4	31.5	46.3	22.2	0.394

*Statistically significant at p < 0.05

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