Survey on the undergraduate curriculum in clinical pharmacology and interns’ prescribing ability in South Korea
Namyi Gu, Kyong-Jee Kim, Chi-Yeon Lim, Jun Kyu Lee, Moo-Yong Rhee, Kwang-Hee Shin, Seung-Hwan Lee, Sangzin Ahn
Appropriate prescription writing is one of the critical medical processes affecting the quality of
public health care. However, this is a complex task for newly qualified intern doctors because of
its complex characteristics requiring sufficient knowledge of medications and principles of clinical
pharmacology, skills of diagnosis and communication, and critical judgment. This study aims
to gather data on the current status of undergraduate prescribing education in South Korea. Two
surveys were administered in this study: survey A to 26 medical schools in South Korea to gather
information on the status of undergraduate education in clinical pharmacology; and survey B to
244 intern doctors in large hospitals to gather their opinions regarding prescribing education and
ability. In survey A, half of the responding institutions provided prescribing education via various
formats of classes over two curriculums including lecture, applied practice, group discussions,
computer-utilized training, and workshops. In survey B, we found that intern doctors have the least
confidence when prescribing drugs for special patient populations, especially pregnant women.
These intern doctors believed that a case-based practical training or group discussion class would
be an effective approach to supplement their prescribing education concurrently or after the clerkship
in medical schools or right before starting intern training with a core drug list. The results of
the present study may help instructors in charge of prescribing education when communicating
and cooperating with each other to improve undergraduate prescribing education and the quality of
national medical care.