Implementation of a Clinical Problem-Solving Course for Students Challenged by Early Pharmacy Curriculum

Abstract

Objective: This study evaluates the impact of offering a clinical decision-making and problem-solving course to students academically challenged in early required clinical and pharmaceutical calculation courses on improving their ability to identify and solve drug-related problems.

Methods: Faculty designed a course with a main objective for students with grades of C or lower in any of the 5 required first-year courses to gain plentiful practice with a systematic approach to identifying and solving drug therapy problems. Students' performance on course-embedded assessments mapped to problem-solver subdomain, a pre-Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) competency on the ability to identify drug-related problems, and performance on Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment were compared to a control group of students from 2 previous cohorts who did not take the course but had a subpar academic performance. Pearson chi-square test and independent samples t test were utilized for categorical and continuous data, respectively.

Results: The clinical decision-making and problem-solving course significantly improved student performance on pre-APPE competency to identify drug-related problems (first-attempt pass rate of 96% vs 30% when compared to a historic cohort), but not on Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment. Student performance on case-based questions mapped to problem-solver subdomain exceeded internally set standard by 13.72% points.

Conclusion: Students demonstrated learning problem-solving and clinical decision-making, which improved their performance on course-embedded assessments and pre-APPE competency in identifying drug-related problems.

Keywords: Academic support; Clinical decision-making; Critical thinking; Pharmacy education; Problem-solving.