Improving Student Performance in Medical Pharmacology
Authors: Smith Stanley Vaughn 
Published: June 2021

Purpose

Teaching Medical Pharmacology in a “traditional” curriculum is a challenge. Although, previous metrics for our student outcomes were acceptable, we were concerned about ensuring continuity and continuous quality improvement amidst ongoing and future changes. To pre‐emptively address these concerns, we implemented several significant changes to our Medical Pharmacology course and in its structure.

Methods

Historically, Medical Pharmacology at The University of Mississippi Medical Center has consisted of roughly 150 course hours spread over the Fall and Spring semesters. Six examinations comprised the majority of the final grade with 20% of the final grade derived from student scores on the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Pharmacology Subject Exam. In 2013, we reorganized the course to not only try to improve outcomes as measured by NBME scores, but to also increase faculty accessibility and interactions with students. In addition, we strived to link together and reinforce major concepts that were being built upon throughout the course. To accomplish this, we made several changes. We eliminated one of the six examinations, consolidated similar materials, and reduced any redundancies in the course. Hours that were freed up, were used for more interactive sessions such as Small Group Learning sessions, Thematic Case Based Studies, and Clinical Correlations. Perhaps most importantly, we implemented an end of the course STEP I review session. We were able to accommodate this by using the hours gained by streamlining the course. We created 10 hours near the end of the course for a directed, systems/topic‐driven review of the course content with emphasis on the NBME Subject/STEP I exam material. All faculty involved were charged with reviewing the material they had covered during the year; preparing a succinct summary of the most important topics to be made available to students; writing STEP‐style review questions in a format where the personal response units of the students could be used to poll results, give instantaneous feedback, and guide the reviews; appearing at the appropriate review session to present the materials; and perhaps most importantly fielding any questions from students concerning any of the content areas.

Results

Student feedback was obtained after each year. It has been increasingly very positive. This was further reflected by a significant increase in overall satisfaction with the Medical Pharmacology course. In addition, the NBME Pharmacology Subject exam scores have steadily increased. Relative to the most appropriate comparison cohort mean, the percentage above that mean for students in Medical Pharmacology has increased from ~5% in 2013 to ~15% above in 2017.

Conclusions

The approaches that we used to improve student performance have been successful based on the available indicators including student satisfaction and NBME outcomes. In addition, these changes have greatly improved the faculty/student interactions. Student feedback also indicates that the course helps them with their national examinations. We are continuing to adapt and adjust the Medical Pharmacology course to continue and enhance these positive and exciting trends.

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