Pemberian Rekomendasi oleh Mahasiswa Farmasi pada Kasus Nyeri Pinggang di Setting Komunitas: Penelitian di Sebuah Institusi

Abstract

One of the goals of pharmacy education is to prepare students to provide appropriate recommendations for minor ailments in the communities. Until recently, research about this ability in Indonesian setting could not be found in published literature. This research aimed to identify the types and appropriateness of recommendations provided pharmacy professional degree students on self-medication requests in low back pain (LBP) case. Data collection in this cross-sectional study was conducted using a questionnaire consisted of participants’ characteristics and a LBP case adapted from the published literature. Appropriate recommendations were determined by an expert panel and findings from published studies were used to define appropriate recommendations. Subsequently, data on participants’ characteristics and appropriateness of recommendations were analyzed descriptively. In total, 86 participants involved in this study (response rate 82.69%). Most participants (91.86%) recommended drugs, 61 of which recommended Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs)—both oral and topical. 70.93% of participants provided appropriate recommendations: analgesic NSAIDs and topical counter-irritants with/without other recommendations. This study showed that most of participants in this research was able to provide appropriate recommendations for LBP. However, further research is needed to explore causes of inappropriate recommendation given by some of the participating students, as an effort to improve learning activities and/or the curriculum.