A QUESTIONNAIRE BASED STUDY TO ASSESS THE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE & PRACTICE OF RATIONAL USE OF DRUGS (RUD) AMONG SECOND YEAR RESIDENT DOCTORS AT A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL

Background: Rational Use of Drugs (RUD) is based on the „Rule of Right? that means right drug to the right patient, in right dosage, at right cost with the right documentation. If drugs are not prescribed or used rationally it leads to serious risks as well as financial burden to the patient. Resident doctors are the future practitioners hence this study is aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude & practice of Rational Use of Drugs among second year resident doctors at a tertiary care hospital as they are more involved in prescribing the drugs in daily OPD than first & final year resident doctors. Methods: It was a questionnaire based study carried out among second year resident doctors at a tertiary care hospital. Sample size of 48 was calculated using Open Epi software. A pre-validated questionnaire was distributed via google forms online &the results were analysed using Microsoft Excel. Results: Response rate was 91.66%. More than 80% second year resident doctors had the knowledge of rational use of drugs and Essential Medicine. 59.5% of them agreed that rational use of drugs enhances better patient care & more than 90% were interested in the training of rational use of drugs. Though more than 65% of them prescribed essential medicines, only 16.7% had their personal drug list. Conclusion: Most of the second year resident doctors had basic knowledge regarding rational use of drugs& had positive attitude towards taking part in the training of it but there was inadequate practice of rational use of drugs among them. This poor practice of rational use of drugs is a matter of concern hence some measures should be taken to ensure that all the resident doctors are practising the rational use of drugs for serving better patient care.