Using Hand Signs to Teach HIV Medications

Abstract

Objective. To describe an innovative active learning strategy that uses students' hands to facilitate learning and retention of major concepts related to nucleotide/nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs). Methods. Students wrote the names of the NRTIs on their fingers, then an interactive activity used a variety of hand signs to teach the drugs. Focus groups were conducted with a total of 20 students one year after being exposed to the new teaching strategy. Students were asked five knowledge-based questions related to the subject matter to assess retention of the material. Results. On average, students answered 64% of the questions correctly. Most students (95%) used their hands to answer the knowledge-based questions. There was a statistically significant association between using hands to answer the question and answering the question correctly. When asked which active learning method was most effective, 14 (70%) participants reported "hands." Conclusion. Using students' hands was well received by this cohort of students. More research is needed to determine if this active learning method could be considered for use in other disease states to help students learn complex medications with many nuances.

2019 Update to the American College of Clinical Pharmacy Pharmacotherapy Didactic Curriculum Toolkit

“…Previous editions of the toolkit have been used by researchers and academic institutions in the United States [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] and internationally 15 to guide curricular development and revision. A recent survey of U.S. schools and colleges of pharmacy found a median of 23 credit hours devoted to pharmacotherapy, which the authors determined was adequate to provide coverage of tier 1 and tier 2 topics from the ACCP toolkit.…”