effectiveness of patient medication counseling in a tertiary care hospital: a cross-sectional study

Background: medicine is prescribed to help the patient. but it can cause unwanted effects in the patient if one take too much or multiple medicines that don’t go together. many patients have problems each year, some serious, because of taking the wrong medicine or not taking the right medicines correctly. this cross-sectional study was done to assess the effectiveness of patient medication counseling in a tertiary care hospital. methods: this cross-sectional questionnaire-guided study was carried out in the dispensary of a tertiary care hospital, from january to april 2024. convenient sampling technique was employed to select study participants. results: a total of 540 respondents were included in this study. only 50.3% of the participants knew the correct frequency and dose of the prescribed medications. majority of the patients did not knew the indications of the medication they were taking. conclusion: there is a need to strengthen the patient medication counselling process so that patients understand & remember what have been advised during counselling. as a healthcare provider, it is our responsibility to educate the patient about the prescribed medicines to obtain the positive healthcare and ensure safe use of medicines.