I am keenly interested in promoting the more rational use of medicines and teaching medical students to use medicines rationally.
I am keenly interested in new methods of teaching and especially interactive teaching.
Journal of Educational Evaluation for Health Professions, 2011
Concern has been raised about inadequate pharmacology teaching in medical schools and the high in... more Concern has been raised about inadequate pharmacology teaching in medical schools and the high incidence of prescribing errors by doctors in training. Modifications in pharmacology teaching have been carried out in many countries. The present study was carried out using a semi-structured questionnaire to obtain students??perceptions of their knowledge, attitudes, and skills with regard to different subject areas related to rational prescribing at the end of two-year activity-based pharmacology practical learning sessions in a private medical school in Nepal. The effectiveness of the sessions and strengths and suggestions to further improve the sessions were also obtained. The median total knowledge, attitude, skills and overall scores were calculated and compared among different subgroups of respondents. The median effectiveness score was also calculated. Eighty of the 100 students participated; 37 were male and 43 female. The median knowledge, attitude, and skills scores were 24, 3...
The distribution of publications in selected health professions education (HPE) journals accordin... more The distribution of publications in selected health professions education (HPE) journals according to the income status of the country where the first author was located during the period from January 2020 to December 2022 was studied. The Scopus quartile one (Q1) journals Academic Medicine, BMC Medical Education, Medical Education, Medical Education Online, Medical Teacher, and Teaching and Learning in Medicine were examined. The year of publication, the type of article, and the income status of the country of the first author were noted. Instances where the first and the corresponding author were the same and different were noted. There were 5,714 unique articles published. There were 26 instances where the first author had multiple affiliations in countries of differing income levels, and the articles were duplicated/triplicated providing a total of 5,740 articles. Most articles (87%) were published by authors from high-income countries and only 0.8% were from low-income countries, with the remainder from middle-income countries. BMC Medical Education had the maximum percentage of authors from low- and middle-income countries. Nations having most of the world’s population and medical schools are significantly underrepresented in publications in the assessed journals impacting diversity and inclusivity in HPE publishing. This is a matter of concern requiring further studies.
Journal of BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences
Background: Medical humanities (MH) uses subjects like literature, music, drama, and painting for... more Background: Medical humanities (MH) uses subjects like literature, music, drama, and painting for specific purposes in medical education. We aimed to assess its medium-term impact on medical alumni whose curriculum incorporated a module on MH which was named as Sparshanam. Methods: After approval from the Institutional Review Committee of KIST Medical College, this cross-sectional online survey was performed from December 2020 to January 2021on the 2008 batch medical alumni who had experienced Sparshanam in their medical education curriculum 10 years before. A mixed modal design (both qualitative and quantitative) was applied. The participants’ perception of the module, like its strengths, weaknesses, and its contribution to personal and professional development were assessed. Results: Out of the 75 first batch alumni, 39 (52%) participated. Most of them were working in the Kathmandu valley. The perceived strengths were teamwork, interactive group sessions, and imparting a holistic ...
Earthquakes impact child health in many ways. Diseases occurring immediately following an earthqu... more Earthquakes impact child health in many ways. Diseases occurring immediately following an earthquake have been studied in field based hospitals but studies on the inpatient disease pattern among children without trauma in a permanent hospital setup is lacking. We examined the diagnoses of all children without trauma, admitted to Kanti Children's Hospital, Kathmandu for fifteen-week duration (from 4th week to end of the 18th week) following the 7.8 magnitude Nepal earthquake on 25th April 2015. The admitted children were grouped based on direct effect of earthquake on their family (house damaged or family member injured or dead) and on whether their place of residence was located in an earthquake affected district. Most common diagnoses were identified and their distribution between the aforementioned groups analyzed to examine differences, if any, in disease occurrence or presentation. The fifteen weeks study duration was divided into three parts of five weeks each, to study tre...
Journal of Educational Evaluation for Health Professions, 2011
Concern has been raised about inadequate pharmacology teaching in medical schools and the high in... more Concern has been raised about inadequate pharmacology teaching in medical schools and the high incidence of prescribing errors by doctors in training. Modifications in pharmacology teaching have been carried out in many countries. The present study was carried out using a semi-structured questionnaire to obtain students??perceptions of their knowledge, attitudes, and skills with regard to different subject areas related to rational prescribing at the end of two-year activity-based pharmacology practical learning sessions in a private medical school in Nepal. The effectiveness of the sessions and strengths and suggestions to further improve the sessions were also obtained. The median total knowledge, attitude, skills and overall scores were calculated and compared among different subgroups of respondents. The median effectiveness score was also calculated. Eighty of the 100 students participated; 37 were male and 43 female. The median knowledge, attitude, and skills scores were 24, 3...
The distribution of publications in selected health professions education (HPE) journals accordin... more The distribution of publications in selected health professions education (HPE) journals according to the income status of the country where the first author was located during the period from January 2020 to December 2022 was studied. The Scopus quartile one (Q1) journals Academic Medicine, BMC Medical Education, Medical Education, Medical Education Online, Medical Teacher, and Teaching and Learning in Medicine were examined. The year of publication, the type of article, and the income status of the country of the first author were noted. Instances where the first and the corresponding author were the same and different were noted. There were 5,714 unique articles published. There were 26 instances where the first author had multiple affiliations in countries of differing income levels, and the articles were duplicated/triplicated providing a total of 5,740 articles. Most articles (87%) were published by authors from high-income countries and only 0.8% were from low-income countries, with the remainder from middle-income countries. BMC Medical Education had the maximum percentage of authors from low- and middle-income countries. Nations having most of the world’s population and medical schools are significantly underrepresented in publications in the assessed journals impacting diversity and inclusivity in HPE publishing. This is a matter of concern requiring further studies.
Journal of BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences
Background: Medical humanities (MH) uses subjects like literature, music, drama, and painting for... more Background: Medical humanities (MH) uses subjects like literature, music, drama, and painting for specific purposes in medical education. We aimed to assess its medium-term impact on medical alumni whose curriculum incorporated a module on MH which was named as Sparshanam. Methods: After approval from the Institutional Review Committee of KIST Medical College, this cross-sectional online survey was performed from December 2020 to January 2021on the 2008 batch medical alumni who had experienced Sparshanam in their medical education curriculum 10 years before. A mixed modal design (both qualitative and quantitative) was applied. The participants’ perception of the module, like its strengths, weaknesses, and its contribution to personal and professional development were assessed. Results: Out of the 75 first batch alumni, 39 (52%) participated. Most of them were working in the Kathmandu valley. The perceived strengths were teamwork, interactive group sessions, and imparting a holistic ...
Earthquakes impact child health in many ways. Diseases occurring immediately following an earthqu... more Earthquakes impact child health in many ways. Diseases occurring immediately following an earthquake have been studied in field based hospitals but studies on the inpatient disease pattern among children without trauma in a permanent hospital setup is lacking. We examined the diagnoses of all children without trauma, admitted to Kanti Children's Hospital, Kathmandu for fifteen-week duration (from 4th week to end of the 18th week) following the 7.8 magnitude Nepal earthquake on 25th April 2015. The admitted children were grouped based on direct effect of earthquake on their family (house damaged or family member injured or dead) and on whether their place of residence was located in an earthquake affected district. Most common diagnoses were identified and their distribution between the aforementioned groups analyzed to examine differences, if any, in disease occurrence or presentation. The fifteen weeks study duration was divided into three parts of five weeks each, to study tre...
The Coronavirus disease has caused widespread suffering and has had devastating economic conseque... more The Coronavirus disease has caused widespread suffering and has had devastating economic consequences. Province number 2 in the terai region of Nepal is densely populated and shares an open border with India. Knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding the disease was previously studied and published. In this manuscript the authors describe respondents' degree of satisfaction with government and hospital efforts to control the pandemic and with the degree of fear and uncertainty caused by the disease. A cross-sectional study was done between May 27 to June 7, 2020, among patients visiting three eye hospitals of province 2. Most respondents were satisfied with government efforts to contain the pandemic. They were highly satisfied with the efforts at the hospitals they visited. Most experienced a lot of fear and uncertainty due to the pandemic. The study had several limitations and was carried out last year before the second deadly wave which happened during April-May this year.
Uploads
Papers by P Ravi Shankar