The effect of an interactive tutorial on the prescribing performance of senior medical students

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of small group tutorials in teaching senior medical students the requirements of prescription writing. Design: Random allocation to interactive tutorial or didactic lecture with blinded evaluation. Subjects: All 1999 6th year medical students, the University of Adelaide. Results: The Tutorial Attenders (mean 13.3, SD 2.6) performed significantly better than the Lecture Group (mean12.2, SD 3.0) p=0.041 and the Non-attenders (mean10.7, SD 3.1) p=<0.001. The 13 individual OSCE items formed four logical subgroups, and the Tutorial Attenders performed significantly better in Prescription Writing in all comparisons. Conclusion: A single, one-hour interactive tutorial is likely to be the minimum amount of intervention that will be effective in improving prescribing skills.