Abstract:

Background: Self-medication among student nurses is the use of medicines without doctor’s prescription. This practice is a global phenomenon and potential contributor to human resistance to most drugs, associated with different types of health challenges. Despite the high knowledge on the complication of self-medication, studies showed that most student nurses still practice selfmedication.

Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the reasons for increase in selfmedication and and find ways on how to curbing the menace among student nurses in the School of Nursing, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Edo State, Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: A descriptive crosssectional survey was conducted with stratified simple random sampling technique to select ninety student nurses from three different levels in the School of Nursing, University of Benin Teaching Hospital in Benin City, Edo State. A selfstructured questionnaire with opentype and Likerttype scale questions used as instrument to assess the reasons for increase in selfmedication and the possible control measures. Data collected were analyzed using tables, percentages, means, standard deviation, and t-test for inferential statistics at 0.05 level of significance, through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software.

Results: The result showed the reasons for increase in selfmedication and how to reduce its occurrence. It also showed that the gender of the student nurses is statistically related to the reasons why they practice selfmedication (t = 6.82, P ≤ 0.001).

Conclusion: Selfmedication can be reduced among student nurses by empowering the law enforcement agencies against selfmedication, improving the availability of essential and quality drugs in school clinics, and inclusion of all student nurses in National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) program, where they can enjoy the benefit of paying only 10% of the treatment charges.