The skills of the students from the iMedical University of Varna for choosing and prescribing of a rational pharmacotherapy were tested. This took place within the framework of a comparative study of the competence in the therapeutic skills of final year medical students from 19 Universities of 10 European countries. From the Bulgarian Medical Universities those of Varna and Sofia were included in the study. The number of students who took part in the study was 1234, from which 37 were from Varna and 109 -from Sofia. Within 30 minutes the students had to determine a non-medical and/or medical treatment (prescription) for four written patient cases. Four diseases from the general practice were included (essential hypertension, acute bronchitis, gastroenteritis and osteo-arthritis). They were presented by four patient cases with an increasing degree of complexity. The skills were scored according to the 5 World Health Organization (WHO) prescribing indicators of therapeutic competence: 1) the number of drugs per prescription; 2) the number of generic names; 3) the number of non-antibiotics; 4) the number of non-drug treatments; 5) the number of completeness of the prescriptions. The scores of the test forms were descriptively analyzed. The skills of the Varna students are similar to the average European students' skills: indicator (1) -1.4 drugs for Europe and 1.8 - for Varna; indicator (2) - 73.7% and 80.8%, respectively; indicator (3) - 82.7% and 80.5%; indicator (4) -16.1 and 6.6; indicator (5) - 64% and 78.1 %. There is not a significant difference in the competence of Varna and Sofia students. The students from the University of Varna use more often generic names in comparison with the students from the University of Sofia (80.8% vs. 73.2%) and more often prefer the non-drug treatment (6.6% vs. 5.2%). This similarity might be due to the problem-based teaching that is carried out in both departments.
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