Basic Medicines
This domain tests safe administration: route, prescription abbreviations, dose calculation and storage. It covers the short list a health worker actually handles - ORS, zinc, IFA, paracetamol, antibiotics and oxytocin.
The five rights
Right patient, right medicine, right dose, right route and right time, plus correct recording. Check the label three times: when taking it out, before preparing, and before giving.
Routes and abbreviations
- Oral, sublingual, topical, inhalation, intramuscular, subcutaneous, intravenous.
- OD once daily, BD twice daily, TDS three times daily, QID four times daily, HS at bedtime, SOS or PRN when required, AC before food, PC after food.
Storage and safety
- Most medicines: cool, dry, dark place. Oxytocin and most vaccines need a cold chain of +2 to +8 degrees Celsius and must never be frozen.
- Check the expiry date and the vaccine vial monitor before use; discard expired or heat-exposed stock.
- Schedule H and H1 drugs need a prescription and register entry; never dispense on your own.
- Report suspected adverse drug reactions through the pharmacovigilance system.
Worked example
A prescription reads: tablet paracetamol 500 mg BD for three days. Reasoning: BD means twice a day, so 12-hourly; the daily total is 1,000 mg, well below the adult maximum of about 3 to 4 g; the course is six tablets. Explain the timing, record the first dose, and warn against combining it with over-the-counter cold remedies that also contain paracetamol.
Traps that cost marks
- Reading BD as three times a day.
- Misreading OD, which can mean right eye as well as once daily; write it out in full.
- Freezing oxytocin or vaccines.
- Giving an antibiotic for an uncomplicated viral cold.