Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Self Medication Among Nurses and Midwives of a Tertiary Care Hospital

Self medication is one of the rapidly growing areas of concern to medical professionals, government and the general public. The study was aimed at assessing the magnitude and factors of self medication among the nurses and midwives of Gauhati Medical College and Hospital. The participants were explained the purpose of study and requested to file up three sets of questionnaires each of knowledge, attitude and practice. Out of a total of 150 nurses, 90 (60%) of them reported of one episode of an illness and 60 (40%) of them practiced self-medication. Most drugs for self-medication were obtained from the pharmacy or drug shops and the most commonly self medicated drugs were Paracetamol, Aspirin, and Pantoprazole. They took this for common illness like fever (20%), headache (30%) followed by common cold and cough (20%). They even took Azithromycin (1 %) for respiratory tract infection. Nonseriousness of their illness with previous experience attributed them for self medication which is facilitated by easy availability of drug and information from textbooks or seniors. Self-medication is one of the rapidly growing areas of concern to medical professional, government and general public. Self-medication among the nurses and mid-wives was practiced with a range of drugs from the conventional drugs for fever (paracetamol) to the antibiotics. Although the practice of self medication is inevitable, the drug authorities and health professionals need to educate nurses and midwives about the pros and cons of self-medication.