Pharmacology Education at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Nigeria: 7‐Perceptions Relative to Other Subjects Among Undergraduate Students in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Authors: Shittu Muftau , Kwanashie Helen Ochuko , Mohammed Idris Maje 
Published: June 2021

Pharmacology is one of about 20 subjects which undergraduate veterinary students take during their program of study. Recent research in the related disciplines of human medicine, nursing and pharmacy at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), had revealed students' perceptions of Pharmacology to be very positive in relation to many of their subjects ‐ with implications for curriculum development, teaching methods, examination process, and career choice. Consequently, the aim of this study was to determine how veterinary students at ABU rate Pharmacology relative to their other subjects, their likes and dislikes of Pharmacology, as well as their future post‐graduation interests. A 7‐item questionnaire was deployed on SurveyMonkey platform, and the link sent to veterinary students offering Pharmacology, namely those at 300L, 400L and 500L, to complete within 48 h. The alphabetically‐listed core subjects ranked alongside Pharmacology were 20, except for 300L where they were 10, as determined the curricula. The 56 respondents aged 19–33 years were made of the following numbers, who were mostly male (%): 300L (11, 70.00%), 400L (19, 61.11%) and 500L (26, 72.00%). Data was analysed on the SurveyMonkey, but the ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ string inputs were reviewed manually. A Key Informant Interview (KII) of the 500L class representative was also held. Overall, Pharmacology was ranked 6th by all the students, as best‐liked subject with an aggregate score of 12.94; behind Animal Handling (15.53), Medicine (15.33), Theriogenology (13.91), Physiology (13.55) and Animal Reproduction (13.48). However, it scored higher than Pathology (12.70), Microbiology (12.62), Surgery (12.27), Entomology (11.40), Parasitology (11.15), Pasture Production (10.59), Toxicology (10.56), Public Health (10.54), Meat Hygiene (9.72), Biochemistry (8.53), Radiation Biology (8.14), Virology (7.99), Applied Anatomy (7.97) and Radiology (6.14). Level‐wise, Pharmacology scored and was also positively ranked: 15.50 (4th out of 10 subjects), 11.56 (10th out of 20) and 11.75 (8th out of 20) by students of 300L, 400L and 500L respectively. The students identified their top reasons for liking Pharmacology as: it providing information on drugs, ease of understanding the subject, and the fact that it is interesting; while their top dislikes were the associated heavy work load, teaching methods and the need for students to cram the subject matter. Regarding future interests, 29.09% of the students had no post‐graduation interest in Pharmacology; and only a few planned to proceed for postgraduate studies (16.36%) or teach Pharmacology (18.18%). Across levels, there were no differences in the students' likes and dislikes of Pharmacology or in their future interests, although understandably, 400L and 500L appeared to be more closely aligned. Many of the survey outcomes were independently substantiated by the KII. Thus, while there were some differences in the way Pharmacology was ranked relative to other subjects, other indices were similar across levels. Interventions are being planned to improve teaching, learning and rating of Pharmacology.

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This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.