METHODS: The perspective, experiences and insights of educators from various backgrounds, origin and educational levels were sought regarding the role of pharmacy education in providing pharmaceutical research and development workforce.
RESULTS: Many countries around the world are currently undertaking major reforms in pharmacy education due to the changing landscape of health and healthcare delivery. These reforms must be accompanied by robust systems to assure that the quality of educational structures, processes and outcomes will produce competent pharmacy graduates in the future. It is also considered imperative that pharmacy academic institutions should establish collaboration with the drug development units, the pharmaceutical industry and government agencies for sustainability and positive research outcomes.
CONCLUSION: Shortcomings in pharmacy curricula need to be addressed and the authors have proposed the 'TARGET' approach for the development of integrated pharmacy curriculum to substantially contribute to pharmaceutical research and development.
METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted via a validated 49-item questionnaire, administered immediately after all students completed the examination. The questionnaire comprised of questions to evaluate the content and structure of the examination, perception of OSCE validity and reliability, and rating of OSCE in relation to other assessment methods. Open-ended follow-up questions were included to generate qualitative data.
RESULTS: Over 80% of the students found the OSCE to be helpful in highlighting areas of weaknesses in their clinical competencies. Seventy-eight percent agreed that it was comprehensive and 66% believed it was fair. About 46% felt that the 15 minutes allocated per station was inadequate. Most importantly, about half of the students raised concerns that personality, ethnicity, and/or gender, as well as interpatient and inter-assessor variability were potential sources of bias that could affect their scores. However, an overwhelming proportion of the students (90%) agreed that the OSCE provided a useful and practical learning experience.
CONCLUSIONS: Students' perceptions and acceptance of the new method of assessment were positive. The survey further highlighted for future refinement the strengths and weaknesses associated with the development and implementation of an OSCE in the International Islamic University Malaysia's pharmacy curriculum.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this nonrandomized trial on interrupted time series study, flipped class was conducted on group of 112 students of bachelor of pharmacy semester V. The topic selected was popular herbal remedies of the complementary medicine module. Flipped class was conducted with audio and video presentation in the form of a quiz using ten one-best-answer type of multiple-choice questions covering the learning objectives. Audience response was captured using web-based interaction with Poll Everywhere. Feedback was obtained from participants at the end of FC activity and debriefing was done.
RESULTS: Randomly selected 112 complete responses were included in the final analysis. There were 47 (42%) male and 65 (58%) female respondents. The overall Cronbach's alpha of feedback questionnaire was 0.912. The central tendencies and dispersions of items in the questionnaire indicated the effectiveness of FC. The low or middle achievers of quiz session (pretest) during the FC activity were three times (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.1-8.9) at the risk of providing neutral or negative feedback than high achievers (P = 0.040). Those who gave neutral or negative feedback on FC activity were 3.9 times (95% CI = 1.3-11.8) at the risk of becoming low or middle achievers during the end of semester examination (P = 0.013). The multivariate analysis of "Agree" or "Disagree" and "Agree" or "Strongly Agree" was statistically significant.
CONCLUSION: This study provides insight on how the pharmacy students learn and develop their cognitive functions. The results revealed that the FC activity with Poll Everywhere is an effective teaching-learning method.
EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: A quasi-experimental pre- and posttest control group design was employed. The experimental group experienced the flipped classroom for selected topics while the control group learned in a traditional classroom. Analysis of covariance was utilized to compare the performance on the final exam using the grade point of a pre-requisite course as the covariate. Students' perceptions of their experience in the flipped classroom were gauged through a web-based survey.
FINDINGS: Student performance on the final exam was significantly higher in the flipped classroom group. The lowest-scoring students benefitted the most in terms of academic performance. More than two-thirds of students responded positively to the use of the flipped classroom and felt more confident while participating in classes and tests.
SUMMARY: The flipped classroom is academically beneficial in a challenging course with a historically low pass rate; it was also effective in stimulating learning interest. The current study identified that for the flipped classroom to be successful, the role of educators, the feasibility of the approach, and the acceptance of students were important.
DESIGN: A 13-station OSCE was designed and implemented in the 2007-2008 academic year as part of the assessment methods for a clinical pharmacy course. The broad competencies tested in the OSCE included: patient counseling and communication, clinical pharmacokinetics (CPK), identification and resolution of drug-related problems (DRPs), and literature evaluation/drug information provision.
ASSESSMENT: Immediately after all students completed the OSCE, a questionnaire containing items on the clarity of written instructions, difficulty of the tasks, perceived degree of learning gained and needed, and the suitability of the references or literature resources provided was administered. More than 70% of the students felt that a higher degree of learning was needed to accomplish the tasks at the 2 DRP stations and 2 CPK stations and the majority felt the written instructions provided at the phenytoin CPK station were difficult to understand. Although about 60% of the students rated OSCE as a difficult form of assessment, 75% said it should be used more and 81% perceived they learned a lot from it.
CONCLUSION: Although most students felt that the OSCE accurately assessed their skills, a majority felt the tasks required in some stations required a higher degree of learning than they had achieved. This may indicate deficiencies in the students' learning abilities, the course curriculum, or the OSCE station design. Future efforts should include providing clearer instructions at OSCE stations and balancing the complexity of the competencies assessed.
METHODS: A cross-sectional electronic survey was conducted at universities in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan. A 59-item survey was administered between October 2017 and December 2017.
FINDINGS: The survey was completed by 211 students (response rate 77.8%). The mean knowledge score for antibiotic resistance, appropriate antibiotic therapy, and antibiotic stewardship was 5.6 ± 1.5, 4.7 ± 1.8 (maximum scores 10.0) and 3.1 ± 1.4 (maximum score 5.0), respectively. Significant variations were noted among the schools. There was poor awareness about the consequences of antibiotic resistance and cases with no need for an antibiotic. The knowledge of antibiotic resistance was higher among male respondents (6.1 vs. 5.4) and those who had attended antibiotic resistance (5.7 vs. 5.2) and antibiotic therapy (5.8 vs. 4.9) courses (p