DRUG PRESCRIBING COMPETENCY AMONG FINAL-YEAR DENTAL STUDENTS, HOUSE OFFICERS, AND RESIDENTS AT A PUBLIC SECTOR UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL IN KARACHI, PAKISTAN

OBJECTIVE: To assess drug prescribing competency and compare these competencies across the clinical levels at Sindh Institute of Oral Health Sciences (SIOHS), Jinnah Sindh Medical University (JSMU). METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted over 4 months involving final-year dental students, house officers, and residents of SIOHS, JSMU. Data were collected using a modified questionnaire and analyzed with IBM SPSS. Descriptive statistics summarized the demographic data. ANOVA was used to compare the means of competency across four domains: Information Gathering, Clinical Decision Making, Communication, and Monitoring/Review. Tukey’s Post Hoc test was conducted to identify group-wise differences. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: About 102 participants responded. Most participants reported adequate knowledge of drug dosage, frequency, duration, and route. Residents (50.0–65.38%) and house officers (54.54–61.36%) showed higher prescribing competency than final-year students (9.37–31.25%). CONCLUSION: When comparing prescribing competency, only the Information Gathering and Clinical Decision-Making domains were significant, with p-values of 0.018 and 0.042, respectively. Tukey’s Post Hoc test showed that only the Information Gathering domain was significantly different between final-year students and house officers, with a p-value of .013. Seniors demonstrated greater confidence in prescribing practices than their juniors, likely due to increased clinical exposure. KEYWORDS: Prescription writing, dental students, clinical competency, drug prescriptions