Abstract
Background: Self-medication is defined as selection and use of medicines by individuals to treat self recognized or self diagnosed conditions or symptoms. Though practiced throughout the world there are limited studies regarding the prevalence of self medication practices among nursing students.
Objective: To determine the pattern of self-medication practices among nursing college students.
Materials and Methods: A cross sectional questionnaire based study was conducted on the nursing students in a government nursing college attached to a tertiary care district hospital in Nanded, Maharashtra. A questionnaire consisting of both open and close ended questions related to various aspects of self-medication were handed out to the students. The students who willingly gave consent filled up the questionnaire anonymously.
Results: Of a total of 84 students, 4 were excluded due to incomplete entries, remaining 80 students were analysed. A total of 91.25% of nursing students practiced self medication. The most common indications for self medication were fever (91.8%), headache (65.8%) and pain abdomen(47.9%). The classes of drugs used commonly for self medication were antipyretics (72.6%), analgesics (67.1%) and antibiotics (37%). Similar past experiences (54.8%), mildness of infection (30.1%) and long waiting line in the OPD (11%), were the most common reasons for self medication. Source of drug information most commonly cited by the students was from textbooks (42.5%), old prescription (27.4%) and parents or other family members (24.7%).
Conclusion: Our study shows that self medication is a very common practice amongst nursing students. The government and the health authorities need to ensure that it is done in a responsible manner.
Keywords: Self-medication, nursing students, drugs.
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DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v5i4.53
