ABSTRACT:
Self-medication is quiet popular practice among the general population as well as health care professionals all over the world. It is evident from the literature that the health care professionals in most of the medical disciplines develop this habit during their training time. The present study was conducted to assess the prevalence and pattern of self medication among nursing students in a private nursing institution. A cross-sectional descriptive research design was selected for study. A total of 316 students were selected from GNM, Basic B.Sc. Nursing and Post B.Sc. Nursing course by convenient sampling technique. Before the data collection, a written consent was taken from all the students selected for the study. The pretested semi-structured questionnaires were administered with regard to socio-demographic data and questions related to self-medication. Descriptive (Frequency, percentage, mean, range, S.D.) and inferential statistics (chi-square) were applied for data analysis. The study results revealed that 54.7% of the students reported self-medication within the last one year of recall period. Self -medication was common for complaints of fever (46.2%), headache (22.1%), dysmenorrhea (19.6%), cold and cough (16.7%), diarrhea (8.2%), and body ache (6.9%). Parents (50.3%) were the major source of information regarding self-medication. Pharmacy (52%) was the major source of drug supply. Most commonly used drug groups for self medication were antipyretics for fever (98.6%), analgesics for headache (82.9%) and body ache (81.8%), antibiotic and antitussives for cold and cough (49%). Nurse educators must be alert in this regard. Nursing students as well as their parents should be counseled to safer use of drugs.
Cite this article:
Indu Rathore. The Prevalence and Pattern of self medication among nursing students in a Private Nursing Institution at Oachghat, Solan (HP) in 2016. Asian J. Res. Pharm. Sci. 2017; 7(3):125-131. doi: 10.5958/2231-5659.2017.00020.0
Cite(Electronic):
Indu Rathore. The Prevalence and Pattern of self medication among nursing students in a Private Nursing Institution at Oachghat, Solan (HP) in 2016. Asian J. Res. Pharm. Sci. 2017; 7(3):125-131. doi: 10.5958/2231-5659.2017.00020.0 Available on: https://ajpsonline.com/AbstractView.aspx?PID=2017-7-3-1