Integrating students’ learning with professional practice through laboratory and workshop based teaching in undergraduate medicinal chemistry

Abstract

Teaching medicinal chemistry in the second year of a pharmacy degree poses a special challenge as it requires teaching both fundamental chemistry and analytical techniques. It is generally felt that the current generation of students mostly lacks the basic knowledge and principle in analytical techniques. Yet, recent advances in analytical instrumentation, has created a false impression among the pharmacy students that fundamental pharmaceutical analytical knowledge & skills are no longer relevant to their pharmacy education. As a result, students’ perception of the laboratory and workshop based teaching has been unfavourable. This paper assesses the factors influencing students’ perceptions and outlines the processes of course design and improvement to change that perception. The study highlights the importance of the integration of academic teaching with the pharmacy profession, and the role of laboratory and workshop based teaching in improving the students’ understanding of the course.