Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences The University of Findlay, United States
Objective : To explore the impact of repeated top drug assessments in a pharmacy skills lab course on student knowledge regarding top drug information. Student perspectives concerning the implementation and academic impact were also evaluated.
Methods: Weekly top drug quizzes and a cumulative final top drug quiz were implemented in a pharmacy skills lab course enrolling second-professional year students in fall 2022. The top drug list included brand, generic, and therapeutic class and aligned with concurrent therapeutic disease state module courses. Impact on student knowledge was determined by comparing mean top drug quiz scores to mean scores on all midterms and final exam of each module course. A survey was administered at the beginning and end of the semester to assess student perspectives.
Results: A total of 44 students were enrolled in the lab course. Average weekly top drug quiz scores ranged between 86-97%. A strong positive correlation was observed between mean top drug quiz scores and performance on major assessments in the cardiovascular (ρ=0.825, p< 0.001), renal (ρ=0.723, p< 0.001), and respiratory (ρ=0.823, p< 0.001) modules. Students perceived the top drug quizzes to be valuable at both the beginning and end of semester (93.2% and 94.4%, respectively). A significant improvement in student confidence with matching brand and generic names (p < 0.001), identifying therapeutic class (p < 0.001), and the perceived ability of the top drug quizzes to positively impact module grades (p=0.03) were observed.
Conclusions: Student performance on weekly top drug quizzes demonstrated a positive correlation with student scores on major assessments of all concurrent module courses and student feedback was positive. Future plans include implementation and evaluation of weekly top drug quizzes to the entire lab course series.
