Abstract

Background: Pharmacology is taught to medical undergraduates to help them have a firm base in therapeutics, helping them in their future clinical practise. The Medical Council of India curriculum mandates that all students should maintain a record of their practical work. Aims and
Objective: The objective of this study is to obtain feedback from students regarding the usefulness of the revised practical record in our institution.
Materials and Methods: This was a structured questionnaire-based cross-sectional study conducted in the Department of Pharmacology, Government Medical College, Thrissur. Institutional Ethics Committee approval was duly obtained. The data were entered in Microsoft Excel and analyzed using SPSS version 16.
Results: Majority of the students (57.1%) rated the overall quality of the record as good. About 53.2% of students found that the revised practical record is very much helpful in understanding the concepts of Pharmacology and 51.3% of students were of the opinion that the revised record created a knowledge base that would somewhat help them with the choice of drugs during clinical practice. About 98.1% of students found the general pharmacology exercises to be relevant, whereas 92.9% of students found clinical pharmacology exercises to be relevant. Under the various clinical pharmacology exercises, 76.6% of students found the patient-oriented problem-solving exercises to be the most interesting. Conclusion: A majority of the students found the revised pharmacology record to be a good teaching–learning method. The greater stress on exercises that will aid in clinical practise has helped to generate a greater interest in the subject among students.