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Self-medication Practices among Nursing and Paramedical Sciences Students: A Case Study of SINPMS, Badal, Punjab
Abstract
Self-medication refers to the use of drugs for self-treatment. It is turning as a worldwide phenomenon and mostly in developing countries. The study aims to know the status of the practice of self-medication among nursing and paramedical sciences students of State Institute of Nursing and Paramedical Sciences, Badal, Punjab, India. The sample size was 300 students and the respondents were selected using the purposive sampling technique. The results of the study revealed that 86.67% of the respondents are in the practice of self-medication. The main source of drug information was pharmacists (29.3%) and the reason behind the self-medication was the economic factor (34%). The results further indicated that 85.7% of the respondents were unaware of the adverse effects of the drugs and 85% were unaware of the drug interactions. It can be inferred from the data that analgesic is the most common drug used for self-medication with 46.15% responses and the preferred system of medicine is allopathic system (76.7%). A majority of the respondents (66%) showed a negative attitude towards self-medication. The study recommends that awareness must be raised among stakeholders about the merits and demerits of self-medication. At the end of the paper, some suggestions have been put forth that the ethics of self-medication should be included in the curricula of health sciences.
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