Harmonizing and improving European education in prescribing: An overview of digital educational resources used in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics

Abstract

Aim Improvement and harmonization of European clinical pharmacology and therapeutics (CPT) education is urgently required. Because digital educational resources can be easily shared, adapted to local situations and re‐used widely across a variety of educational systems, they may be ideally suited for this purpose. Methods With a cross‐sectional survey among principal CPT teachers in 279 out of 304 European medical schools, an overview and classification of digital resources was compiled. Results Teachers from 95 (34%) medical schools in 26 of 28 EU countries responded, 66 (70%) of whom used digital educational resources in their CPT curriculum. A total of 89 of such resources were described in detail, including e‐learning (24%), simulators to teach pharmacokinetics and/or pharmacodynamics (10%), virtual patients (8%), and serious games (5%). Together, these resources covered 235 knowledge‐based learning objectives, 88 skills, and 13 attitudes. Only one third (27) of the resources were in‐part or totally free and only two were licensed open educational resources (free to use, distribute and adapt). A narrative overview of the largest, free and most novel resources is given. Conclusion Digital educational resources, ranging from e‐learning to virtual patients and games, are widely used for CPT education in EU medical schools. Learning objectives are based largely on knowledge rather than skills or attitudes. This may be improved by including more real‐life clinical case scenarios. Moreover, the majority of resources are neither free nor open. Therefore, with a view to harmonizing international CPT education, more needs to be learned about why CPT teachers are not currently sharing their educational materials.

Strategies to Inspire Students’ Engagement in Pharmacology Courses

“…Figure 1 highlights the five pillars of digital tools (FPDT) that are used to enhance engagement, motivation, and activity among students within higher education. Educators integrate digital tools such as virtual learning environments, gaming, and social media into their academic activities, as today's students are more reliant on technology for learning than previous generations [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] (Figure 1). (EBL) and problem-based learning (PBL).…”

“…Furthermore, a popular way to revise and learn pharmacological concepts as well as engaging students is to use the game-based learning platform Kahoot [10,15] (Table 1). Kahoot is an interactive game in which the instructor can create a number of multiplechoice questions that are relevant to the learning objectives.…”

Teaching resources for the European Open Platform for Prescribing Education (EurOP2E)—a nominal group technique study

“…Previous research shows that these resources can be effective in teaching the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for safe, effective and responsible prescribing 5 . A large variety of online problem-based resources is already being used for CPT training in universities throughout Europe, but while teachers reported that they are willing to share these materials, they currently rarely do so 6,7 . Actively sharing these materials will aid local teachers to improve their CPT curricula by making them more problem-based.…”

“…La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. 7 Department of Basic and Applied Medical Sciences, Ghent University, Section Clinical Pharmacology, Ghent, Belgium. 8 Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.…”

Sustainable medicines use in clinical practice -- it is time to help the teacher

“…To incorporate sustainable prescribing in their teaching is something that most teachers simply do not have time for and even if they have the time, they may feel that there are more urgent improvements to be made. Many have stated intend to progress to more problem-based curricula, but recent surveys show that this transition is slow at best [4,5]. Moreover, the (mostly generation X or older) teachers may not be as invested in the issues of planetary health as the current (generation Y and Z) young doctors and students and they may not feel confident that they have the expertise to teach about it [6].…”