Evaluation of a pharmacotherapy context-learning programme for preclinical medical students.

Full Abstract

AIM:
To evaluate a context-learning pharmacotherapy programme for approximately 750 2nd, 3rd and 4th year preclinical medical students with respect to mastering cognitive pharmacotherapeutic skills, i.e. choosing a (drug) treatment and determining patient information.

METHODS:
The context-learning pharmacotherapy programme consists of weekly organized role play sessions in the form of consulting hours. Fourth year students sit for a therapeutic Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in the form of consulting hours at the outpatient clinic. Sixty-one 2nd, 74 3rd and 49 4th year medical students who attended the role play sessions and the OSCE were randomly selected. Their performances were assessed by clinical examiners and clinical experts and compared with a reference group of 6th year graduated students. Additionally, the scores of a questionnaire on study load and appreciation were collected.

RESULTS:
The level of the pharmacotherapeutic skills of the 4th year students who followed the pharmacotherapy context-learning programme was not far below that of 6th year graduates who had finished their clinical clerkships, but had not followed the pharmacotherapy programme. The time spent on the programme was about 1% of the total study load per year. The students appreciated the role play sessions and OSCE by around 80% and 99% of the maximum possible scores.

CONCLUSIONS:
Preclinical pharmacotherapy context learning has a modest but positive effect on learning cognitive pharmacotherapeutic skills, i.e. choosing a drug treatment and determining patient information. This effect has been obtained with role play sessions, a suboptimal form of context learning, with a minimal study load and a high appreciation by students.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Vollebregt, J A (JA); van Oldenrijk, J (J); Kox, D (D); van Galen, S R (SR); Sturm, B (B); Metz, J C M (JC); Richir, M C (MC); de Haan, M (M); Hugtenburg, J G (JG); de Vries, T P G M (TP);

Affiliation: VU University Medical Centre, Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacy/Section Pharmacotherapy, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: British journal of clinical pharmacology (Br J Clin Pharmacol), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Dec; vol 62 (issue 6) : pp 666-72

Dates: Created 2006/11/22; Completed 2007/05/29; Revised 2008/11/20;

PMID: 17040470, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Clinical Competence
Education, Medical - methods
Humans

Pharmacology - education
Problem Solving
Program Evaluation
Students, Medical - psychology

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.