Original Research Article
Year: 2018 | Month: April-June | Volume: 3 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 35-39
Self-Medication Practices in Nursing Students
Aarti Bhandari1, Rupali Upadhyay1, Anju Joshi1, Deepika Bajeta1, Deepa Maher1, Jyoti Joshi1, Kanchan Singh1, Neha Bisht1, Neha Misha1, Rupa Bisht1, Pratiti Haldar2, Rebecca Peter3, Madhavi Bisht3
1B.Sc. (N) students, 2Lecturer, 3Nursing Tutor, Child health Nursing Department, Pal College of Nursing and Medical Sciences, Anandi Tower, Nainital Road, Haldwani, Uttarakhand, India.
Corresponding Author: Mrs. Pratiti HaldarABSTRACT
Background: Over the counter (OTC) medicines are the drugs that can be sold without the prescription of a registered medical practitioner to the consumer. [1] OTC medicines are used as self-medication by students for conditions like fever, pain and cold. Awareness regarding OTC drugs will help to lead better medical practices and will prevent any untoward medical occurrence. [2]
Aims and Objectives: The objectives of the study were to assess the frequency of self medication practices and to find out the common drugs used.
Materials and Methods: Non experimental quantitative research approach was used and with purposive sampling data was collected from 150 nursing students of selected nursing college, Haldwani. The tool used for data collection was the self-structured questionnaire on socio-demographic variable, frequency of self medication and common drug usage.
Results: Research findings revealed that out of 150 participants majority of the84 (56%) students were in the age group of (21 – 24) years, most of the 77 (51.3%) students who participated in the study were from B.Sc. (N) course and majority of the study participants 100(66.7%) were taking drugs without prescription and maximum number 93(62%) of the students were using antipyretics.
Conclusion: The study found that majority of the nursing students were taking over the counter drugs. Though, over the counter drugs are widely used by health care professionals in minor ailments, in future run these drugs might cause adverse effects due to irrational use of them.
Keywords: OTC, self medication, practice, nursing students.