Pathology for Pharmacy Students: Practical measures that enhance the learning experience
Keywords:
Pathological Science, Medical Education, Pharmaceutical ScienceAbstract
Background and Aims: Pathology forms an important part of the Pharmacy undergraduate program. Several interventional measures were introduced to enhance the module and the possible effects on students’ perception of the module assessed.
Methods: From the 2009 cohort, lecturers and core topics were introduced during the orientation lecture. Periodic ‘meet-ups’ were arranged between the module coordinator and the students. From the 2010 cohort, tutorials were made more clinically- relevant and more concise textbooks were recommended. The perceptions of the 2009-2011 cohorts of students (‘post- intervention’) were compared with those of 2006-2008 (‘pre-intervention’).
Results: The proportion of the students rating the module as good/excellent was 50% in the 2006-2008 cohorts and rose to 62% in the 2009-2011 cohorts (p=0.0079).
Conclusions: This analysis reveals significant improvement in the students’ evaluation of the module. Practical measures that build up teacher-student rapport and that provide clarity of the subject material are likely factors that helped improved the students’ perception of the module.
References
Anderson, A.D. & Bickley H.C. (1976) A case for personalized instruction in Pathology. Student Evaluations. American Journal of Pharmacy Education, 40, 250-251.
Antepohl, W. & Herzig, S. (1999) Problem-based learning versus lecture-based learning in a course of basic pharmacology: a controlled, randomized study. Medical Education, 33, 106-113.
Berk, R.A. (2009) Using the 360O multisource feedback model to evaluate teaching and professionalism. Medical Teacher, 31,1073-1080.
Laight, D.W.(2006) Attitudes to concept maps as a
teaching/ learning activity in undergraduate health professional education: influence of preferred approach to learning. Medical Teacher, 28:e64-67.
Lakhani, S.R., Dilly, S.A. & Finlayson, C.J. (2009) Basic Pathology. 4th edition, Hodder Education.
Reid, R., Roberts, F. & MacDuff, E. (2011) Pathology Illustrated. 7th edition, Churchill Livingstone.
Schneider, A.S. & Szanto, P.A. (2009) Pathology: Board Review Series. 2nd edition, Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins.
Smith, L., Krass, I., Sainsbury, E. & Rose, G. (2010) Pharmacy students' approaches to learning in undergraduate and graduate entry programmes. American Journal of Pharmacy Education, 74, 106.
Torrance, H. (2007) Assessment as learning? How the use of explicit learning objectives assessment criteria and feedback in post-secondary education and training can come to dominate learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 143(3); Special Issue: Assessment in post- secondary education training.
Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore (on-line). Available at: http:// www.pharmacy.nus.edu.sg/. Accessed 30th January, 2013.
