Director of Experiential Education University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Buffalo, New York, United States
Objective : The objectives are to describe and assess a unique one credit math and medications course.
Methods: A new course was developed and delivered to first year college honors students. The course delivered basic pharmacy math concepts surrounding dosing of oral and parenteral medications, medication action was not a focus. The course was delivered live one hour per week over a 15-week semester. Most of the teaching was problem solving led by the instructor following Gagné’s Events of Instruction. To better engage the class, the instructor also required students to teach selected topics in the course. The course content and structure were assessed by the students at mid-semester and at the end of the semester via two different surveys.
Results: A total of 16 students enrolled and 15 out of 16 passed the course (one student transferred to another college). Completed surveys were submitted by 12 students out of 15 for the mid-semester survey (80% response rate) and 9 out of 15 for the end of semester survey (60% response rate). Using a five-point scale, 87/108 (80.6%) responses were positive (agree + strongly agree) for the mid-semester survey and 39/45 (86.7%) were positive (agree + strongly agree) for the end of semester survey. Nine written comments were provided as feedback, 44% were positive, 33% felt improvement was needed (e.g., more unguided practice problems needed), and 23% did not see value based on their major. Upon retrospective review no student declared pharmacy or any healthcare profession as a major.
Conclusions: Overall student perceptions were positive after completing a math course based on pharmacy dosing principles.
