Prescription writing skills of pre-clinical medical and dental undergraduate students.

Objective of this prospective study was to assess the acquisition of prescribing skill of preclinical medical and dental undergraduate students. Prescription writing skills of 258 students of both first and second year of MBBS and BDS students were analyzed through an objective structured practical examination. MBBS student of second year scored 85.01% and 92.82% respectively in physician and drug related component whereas first year MBBS students scored 89.9% and 83.4%. BDS student of first year scored 91.96% and 86.33% in physician and drug related components which is better than second year that scored 83.33% and 77.94% respectively. This study revealed that the students of both courses acquire prescribing skills to a limited extent during preclinical phase. Prescribing errors were found both in physician and drug related components. To minimize the different form of prescribing errors vigorous training in the internship period will help to minimize prescribing errors and improve rational prescribing too.