An evaluation of the ‘CRAMPS’ pedagogy in Pharmacology: Perspectives of medical students at the University of Namibia
Keywords:
Effectiveness, Pharmacology, Teaching-Learning, Perceptions, NamibiaAbstract
Background: The variation in pharmacology teaching approaches influences the intrinsic student learning behaviours and impacts on acquisition of desired competencies, particularly in the setting of the new Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy at the University of Namibia. Though the SOAP and PHARM notes have been used effectively in clinical pharmacy teaching, systematic approaches to strengthen the teaching of pharmacology have been limited.
Objective: To determine the usefulness of the CRAMPS (Class, Rationale, Adverse reaction, Mechanism, Pharmacokinetics and Special considerations) approach as a teaching tool in pharmacology from the students’ perspective.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among pharmacy and medicine students who had completed a 16- week pharmacology module between July and November 2012. Data on perceived effectiveness of teaching approaches were collected using an adjusted Likert scale based questionnaire. Data were entered into Epidata® v.3.1 and exported to SPSS® v.19 software for descriptive analysis.
Results: Of the 86 (99%) students, the majority were female 58(67.4%); with males had a higher mean age than females (p<0.001). One fifth of students did not complete 90% of learning encounters. The majority of students perceived didactic audiovisual lectures using CRAMPS approach as very effective (p<0.001). Some students perceived the incoherence and dynamics among students in a home group as a deterrent factor to learning pharmacology.
Conclusion: An audiovisual CRAMPS approach is considered as an effective and systematic tool in teaching-learning of pharmacology. However, poor group dynamics within home groups may negatively impact on learning pharmacology and may not be ideal approach for all students.
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