No abstract

Despite some potential positive benefits resulting from PHR use, several barriers inhibited sustained and effective use over time. Provider and patient education about the benefits of PHR use and about the potential for filling in information gaps in the provider-based record is key to engage patients and stimulate PHR adoption and use.

Health professional students' knowledge and attitudes toward the pharmaceutical industry are formed prior to graduation. Professional curricula must address the influences of sales representatives before postgraduate training.

The relevance of medicinal chemistry to pharmacy practice has been questioned by many pharmacy educators as more emphasis has been placed on linking clinical knowledge and practice to pharmacy student educational outcomes. Faculty teaching in medicinal chemistry and other biomedical and pharmaceutical science courses have embraced this challenge. Various teaching methods and approaches within medicinal chemistry that emphasize application of this knowledge have been sought to improve the usefulness of this scientific discipline to the future careers of students. The newly revised ACPE guidelines and standards have reemphasized the role of the sciences in the curriculum. With this mandate, it is essential that all science faculty members adjust the way they teach to meet the new desired outcomes for pharmacy graduates. This manuscript describes an instructional model for teaching medicinal chemistry explicitly designed to meet these outcomes. A process of collaboration between experienced pharmacy faculty scholars was used to derive this approach. Pedagogy for cognitive and affective learning was incorporated. A case study using a representative drug class is presented to illustrate this model.

Objectives. To evaluate an instructional model for teaching clinically relevant medicinal chemistry.Methods. An instructional model that uses Bloom's cognitive and Krathwohl's affective taxonomy, published and tested concepts in teaching medicinal chemistry, and active learning strategies, was introduced in the medicinal chemistry courses for second-professional year (P2) doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students (campus and distance) in the 2005-2006 academic year. Student learning and the overall effectiveness of the instructional model were assessed. Student performance after introducing the instructional model was compared to that in prior years. Results. Student performance on course examinations improved compared to previous years. Students expressed overall enthusiasm about the course and better understood the value of medicinal chemistry to clinical practice. Conclusion. The explicit integration of the cognitive and affective learning objectives improved student performance, student ability to apply medicinal chemistry to clinical practice, and student attitude towards the discipline. Testing this instructional model provided validation to this theoretical framework. The model is effective for both our campus and distance-students. This instructional model may also have broad-based applications to other science courses.