Design and Delivery of Clinical Pharmacokinetics in Colleges and Schools of Pharmacy

Development and evaluation of an escape room based on general pharmacokinetics: Students' perceptions of its motivational climate

We designed an escape room based on the basic principles of pharmacokinetics for undergraduate bachelor students and explored its effect on students' perceived motivational climate and usefulness as a formative assessment via a mixed-method design. The effect on students' perceptions of the motivational climate was measured using pre- and post-test measurements of the MUSIC® inventory. Students' experiences with the escape room and suggestions for improvement were collected by open-ended survey questions. Forty-one students initially joined the study while 28 students completed both the pre- and post-test MUSIC® inventory. Data from the MUSIC® inventory revealed the effect of playing the escape room on students' situational interest was positive with medium to large effect (Cohen's dav  = 0.63). Data from the open-ended questions confirmed the outcome of the MUSIC® inventory. While there was a positive effect on situational interest, students found the escape room not very useful as a tool for formative assessment. Further research should include a control group and focus on the effect of the escape room on academic success and work toward increasing the capacity of the escape room for large-scale courses.

Vancomycin Flight Simulator: A Team-Based Learning Exercise

BACKGROUND

Team-based learning (TBL) encourages learners to think critically to solve problems they will face in practice. Pharmacokinetic dosing and monitoring are complex skills requiring the application of learned knowledge. The study sought to assess the impact of a TBL, vancomycin dosing activity in a Pharmaceutical Skills IV course measured with exam question performance during the second professional year.

METHODS

This retrospective, descriptive study relates a TBL activity, assigned to 85 students, which included an individual student pre-preparation quiz, assigned readings, in-class individual and team-based readiness assessments, small group application of a vancomycin patient case, and group discussion/feedback on clinical decisions with supportive reasoning. The class year before and class year of the TBL implementation were compared using the total percentage of points possible earned by the class years, by topic. To minimize potential confounding, the primary outcome was the change in topic performance by the rank difficulty (e.g., the largest possible benefit being the hardest topic becoming the easiest with no other variation in topic rank difficulty).

RESULTS

In the year of implementation, the mean individual readiness assurance test (IRAT) performance was 5.5 ± 1.88 (10 points possible, 55%). The mean team readiness assurance test (TRAT) performance was 10 of 10 points possible (100%). The class exam item performance in the year before (n = 101) and year of (n = 84) TBL implementation showed a general decline in exam scores. However, the vancomycin topic difficultly went from fifth easiest, to second easiest, with less than 1% change in raw score.

CONCLUSIONS

Implementation of a pharmacokinetic TBL activity appeared to moderately support the students' vancomycin learning. Additional studies are warranted on APPE readiness and performance.

Views, knowledge, and practices of hospital pharmacists about using clinical pharmacokinetics to optimize pharmaceutical care services: a cross-sectional study

Background

Pharmacokinetics (PK) is often used to optimize individualized dosing regimens of some drugs. This study was conducted to determine views, knowledge, and practices of hospital pharmacists in Palestine about using clinical PK to optimize pharmaceutical care services.

Method

This study was conducted in a cross-sectional design using a questionnaire. The questionnaire collected information about the nature of PK courses taught to hospital pharmacists, importance, relevance, effectiveness, adequacy, and depth of these courses, adequacy of PK skills, implementing PK knowledge/skills in current practice, and barriers limiting the implementation of PK to optimize pharmaceutical care services for hospitalized patients. The hospital pharmacists were visited in their places of work and were asked to complete the questionnaire in privacy. Categorical data were compared using Kruskal-Wallis test or Mann-Whitney U tests.

Results

The questionnaire was completed by 145 hospital pharmacists. Of the pharmacists, 84 (57.9%) received basic PK courses, 79 (54.5%) were taught integrated PK courses, and 94 (64.8%) agreed that the PK courses were important to their current practice. Similarly, 85 (57.9%) of the pharmacists were not satisfied with the teaching methods and contents of the PK courses. Pharmacists who obtained their degrees from Palestine were less satisfied with the methods of teaching compared to those who obtained their degrees from foreign countries (p-value = 0.006). Only 25 (17.2%) pharmacists reported frequent use of PK knowledge in their current practice. Lack of practical knowledge and continuing education, poor understanding of PK by pharmacists and other healthcare professionals were identified as barriers limiting the implementation of PK in optimizing pharmaceutical care services to hospitalized patients.

Conclusion

The hospital pharmacists were generally not satisfied with the way PK courses were taught and expressed difficulty in implementing PK knowledge and skills to improve pharmaceutical care services to hospitalized patients. Integrating PK topics within other relevant courses and adopting more clinically oriented learning methods could improve understanding and implementing PK knowledge and skills in optimizing pharmaceutical services to hospitalized patients. Further studies are still needed to determine the optimal teaching/learning methods that can improve knowledge and skill acquisitions of pharmacists in the area of PK.

Assessing Knowledge of Pharmacokinetics in an Integrated Medical Curriculum

Pharmacokinetics is the branch of pharmacology that describes how the body processes drugs. As most physicians will prescribe drugs during their career, knowledge of pharmacokinetics is indispensable for medical students. Students, however, experience pharmacokinetics as difficult, probably due to its abstract and mathematical nature. In many medical curricula, pharmacokinetic topics are taught and examined as a part of integrated medical courses. As pharmacokinetics is a relatively small subject, unit examinations contain only few questions on the topic. The combination of a difficult subject and a few questions has raised concerns that students could perform poorly in pharmacokinetics and still pass the examinations and, hence, end up with insufficient knowledge of pharmacokinetics. In this study, we investigate this issue by contrasting students' performance on pharmacokinetics questions with their performance on the rest of the examinations (all non-pharmacokinetics questions lumped together). The results expressed as pass-fail scores showed that students failed more often on the pharmacokinetics part of the test than on the other questions, in two consecutive academic years. Despite the suboptimal knowledge in pharmacokinetics, students can still acquire their bachelor's degree. These results show that poor knowledge in pharmacokinetics could be a side effect of curricular integration. Attention should therefore be paid to provide insight into one's own performance in individual disciplines. This would avoid knowledge deficiency and incompetence in the future.

Implementation and evaluation of problem-based video podcasts in an introductory pharmacokinetics course

INTRODUCTION

The use of problem-based video podcasts in health sciences education is limited. Principles of Pharmacokinetics is an introductory course that establishes a foundation for understanding pharmacokinetic concepts. The primary objective was to determine the impact of problem-based video podcasts in an introductory pharmacokinetics course on student learning.

METHODS

Problem-based video podcasts were implemented in an introductory pharmacokinetics course in spring 2015. Student pharmacists in the first professional year enrolled in the course during spring 2015, 2016, and 2017 were included in the study with students enrolled in the course in spring 2014 serving as the control group. The primary outcome was the impact of problem-based video podcasts on student learning as assessed by student performance on the final exam. Other outcomes included student utilization of the video podcasts, overall course grades, and student perceptions of learning using video podcasts.

RESULTS

A total of 633 students in four academic years were included for analysis. Final exam scores were significantly higher in spring 2015 and 2016 compared to 2014. The 2017 final exam scores were similar to the final exam scores in 2014. Students perceived the problem-based video podcasts enhanced their ability to apply concepts to a patient case, reinforced concepts from lectures, and improved their understanding of clinical pharmacokinetics.

CONCLUSION

The use of problem-based video podcasts is an innovative method to augment learning outside of the traditional class time and may enhance learning without replacing direct instructor-student contact. Students reported the video podcasts improved their understanding of clinical pharmacokinetics.