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undergraduate pharmacy students to the multi-disciplinary field of pharmacoinformatics. The content of the course comprises of topics such as drug information, pharmacy
information systems with practice relevant skills. This information is expected to be
relevant to these graduates in their future responsibilities in the various fields of
pharmacy. Aim: The current study will present a critical review of PHC500 by assessing the program content and the teaching methods adopted. Its effectiveness is
also measured by considering the feedback of students. Results and discussion: 89 out
of 121 of the respondents thought that the course was well conducted and the course
contents were interesting. Approximately 90% of respondents also believed that the
course content was relevant to their future needs as practicing pharmacists. However
they would prefer a shorter duration and less labour intensive assignment due to the
fact that it is a one credit hour course. The course curriculum was reorganised in order
to better reflect these course outcomes and student learning. The student feedback on
the effectiveness and delivery of this course is very positive. Conclusion: The success
of the program will ensure students receive the technical skills and knowledge to allow them to confidently address pharmacy issues within this era of information. The
current study showed the importance that the clinical curriculum for PHC500 be revised. The adopted approach to practice-based learning could potentially be used as a
blueprint to allow a common focus for successful outcome-based education (OBE).
Keywords: curriculum assessment pharmacoinformatic drug information Malaysia, outcome based education
C.M.Long et al
1. Introduction
OBE is not a new theory but has been a major exercise for the medical course. Besides, it is also advocated by other healthcare professional courses such as pharmacy
program and nursing program. The Korean Accreditation Board of Nursing Education
supported the execution of this approach (Kim, 2012). School of Pharmacy at the
Chinese University of Hong Kong has its own guideline of outcome-based teaching
and learning (Kember, 2005)
In this era of science and technology, the application of information technology has
been used widely in various sectors. Health sectors are also one of the sectors which
have integrated the application of information technology into its services. With the
advent of health informatics, the role of pharmacy in health informatics is developing
fast and generally the term pharmacoinformatics is used to describe pharmacy information system and drug information (Ibrahim et al., 2002.).
Despite of advanced technology system provided in the healthcare setting, its usefulness might be low if the pharmacists do not acquire the related knowledge and
skills to use those information technologies. Hence, to avoid this problem, the pharmacy school can play their role in providing a better education to the future pharmacist so that the practice and application of pharmacoinformatics will be optimized
(Ibrahim et al., 2002.).
Meanwhile, the objective of a pharmacy education and learning is to offer the student with the core values and crucial expertise and abilities that she/he will certainly
later apply to her/his method. The objective of competence-based education and
learning is to make specific the hyperlinks between education and practice such that
education and learning is customized to the demands of practice and not the interests
or interests of those which offer the education. As the importance of the task competence is assessed strongly on the end results of job task, we would say that this approach aids to differentiate the demands of understanding and skills, which might be
analyzed via the examination process, and the suitable application of understanding
and skills to generate the required end results, that is the essence of competent method.
C.M.Long et al
Method
2.1
For the past few years, pharmacy instructors and establishments around the world
are checking out the areas and usefulness of OBE. When developing the course eight
key academic abilities are grouped into three extensive areas (Figure 1). The capacities were created from specified keywords, literature searches, and discourse among
panels of professionals. The goals are students will attain CO of their learning.
C.M.Long et al
Personal quality:
Self-directed learning,
reflective healthcare
professional
(Affective domain)
Interpersonal skills:
Effective communication, teamplayer
(Psychomotor domain)
Fig. 1. The eight desired graduate capabilities of the UITM program showing the development
of personal attributes and generic capabilities forming the core of the curriculum. Modified
from reference (PC et al., 1994)
C.M.Long et al
Curriculum development
Faculty of Pharmacy, UiTM reviews the curriculum every four years. The results
serve well for OBE and needs based curriculum to become a competent pharmacist
(Hadi et al., 2011). OBE curriculum design aims to provide an educational and academic program that focus on students outcomes; meaning that students should be
able to demonstrate the stipulated program, course and learning outcomes that the
academic staff/faculty had designed for the program (Spady, 1994).
According to the study plan, PHC580 is offered during semester 8 (4th year) with 1
credit hour (14 contact hours). This course expose student to the multi-disciplinary
area of pharmacoinformatics. The main focus is to improve their skills and role in as
a highly competent hospital clinician and drug information pharmacist. In the attempt
to make this course to be effective, appropriate and suitable topics selections should
be studied so that the future pharmacist can gain a thorough knowledge on pharmacoinformatics. Pharmacy students should equip themselves with a sound knowledge
on this area. This is to ensure, the seven roles of future pharmacist described by
World Health Organization (WHO) could be achieved. The seven roles stated includes, pharmacists roles as a caregiver, managers, decision-makers, communicators,
leaders, teachers and lifelong learners (Abrika et al., 2012).
In congruent with the PO, the course outcomes for this course PHC580 pharmacoinformatics are;
C.M.Long et al
3.1
C.M.Long et al
3.2
Course Syllabus
C.M.Long et al
121 students participated in the survey which gave a response rate of 75% (total
161 students in the 4th year cohort). Female respondents consist of 70% of the sample
which mainly attributed to the fact that almost 75% of the pharmacy students in the
faculty are female. Generally, the students thought that the course was well conducted
and the course contents were not dull. Students feedback also shown that up to 91%
agreed that they had enhanced their knowledge of pharmacoinformatics after the
course. Approximately 90% of them also thought that the course contents were relevant their future practice as pharmacist. This is important information considering all
the students had been trained in the tertiary care hospital, community pharmacy and
manufacturing facility for a total duration of more than seven months in their previous
training. However, majority of the students felt that the assignment given was more
advanced than their learning level. Many of the students gave their opinions from the
open ended questions about the strengths and weaknesses of the course. Many of
them mentioned that assignment on performing a comprehensive drug review on unlabelled indication was too time consuming and required much critical appraisal of
clinical data and literature (Hadi et al., 2011a, p.^pp.). Some of them also felt that the
course contents could be streamlined so that there are no overlapping and repetition of
several topics such as drug utilization, drug formulary management as well as pharmacy and drug therapeutic committee. Owing to the fact that this is a one credit hour
course, they are not comfortable with the written final examination and wide range of
topics covered. They stated that pharmacy automation and robotic dispensing could
be conducted as a site visit rather than a class in lecture hall. The details of the findings are presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Student evaluation of the course with five-point Likert scale (Likert scale: 1 = strongly
disagree to 5 = strongly agree)
Statement
N (%)
Strongly
agree to
agree (5 &
4)
Neutral
(3)
Disagree to
strongly
disagree (2 &
1)
89 (74)
23 (19)
9 (7)
108 (91)
9 (8)
2 (2)
107 (89)
9 (8)
4 (3)
C.M.Long et al
(N=120)
Assignment
(N=118)
3.4
given
was
appropriate
19 (16)
21 (18)
78 (66)
Calls to change clinical curricula through the implementation of OBE have additionally evaluated considerably of contemporary clinical education and learning to be
oriented toward the amount of time invested in a component of training (e.g., a turning) as opposed to the abilities in fact acquired. Elements of pharmacy student training, such as eligibility for specialisation credibility, additionally often concentrate on
time spent on particular experiences. Contemporary education, they suggest, must
shift its emphasis in favour of creating the student's capabilities. Learners might proceed much faster or slower than their peers in a provided curricular part. Theoretically, by accommodating these different rates of discovering and abilities accomplishment, a curriculum with flexible time periods might be a lot more reliable and appealing than a strictly time-based educational program (Table 2) (Frank et al., 2010 ).
Existing
Revision
Introduction to pharmacoinformatics
C.M.Long et al
Pharmacy automation
Online Applications
(Apps)/social media and internet technologies to pharmacy and medicine
Pharmacy and Therapeutics
Committee; the role and function (case study)
Suggestion: The course syllabus was compiled into fewer chapters (10 to 8). This
is because some of the subjects in this course were omitted due to the irrelevancy to
the current situation.
Assessment
The existing assessment:
Continuous Assessment (60%)
Test 1
=10%
Test 2
=10%
Assignment 1 , assignment 2 and assignment 3=40%
Final Exam=40%
To optimise the learning, the assignment given to the students also involves the CO
of the subject. Students will be assessed using the following revised assessment:
Test =10%
Presentation=10%
Problem based education=10%
Assignment =20%
Final Exam=50%
For this course, objective tests measure the learners ability to remember facts and
figures as well as their comprehension of course materials. Exams are used primarily
for grading or selection purpose. While in case study assessment students are given a
factual description of a problem or situation. They are asked to analyze some information, diagnose the problem and prescribe a solution using keyword as presented in
Table 3. Final grades will depend on the student will demonstrate successful comple-
C.M.Long et al
tion of the following outcomes as evidenced by successfully passing written test and
examinations, or case studies.
C1
Knowledge
Identify
Label
Locate
Select
Name
State
Write
C2
Comprehension
Explain
Relate
Describe
Match
Discuss
Estimate
Confirm
C3
Application
Apply
Modify
Build
Construct
Solve
Sketch
Produce
C4
Analysis
Analyze
Sort
Categorize
Investigate
Compare
Differentiate
Examine
C5
Synthesis
Combine
Compose
Design
Generate
Plan
Formulate
Revise
C6
Evaluation
Solve
Critique
Criticize
Assess
Conclude
Justify
Judge
Existing Format
20 questions (20 marks)
-covers knowledge (C1) and comprehension
(C2)
15 questions (15 marks)
-covers knowledge (C1) and comprehension
(C2)
7 questions (35 marks)
-covers knowledge (C1) and comprehension
(C2)
2 out of 4 questions (30 marks)
-covers application (C3)
Suggestion Format
Remain
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C.M.Long et al
The changes suggested above are mainly to ensure a strategic way to enhance the
quality of teaching and learning. All the suggestions are based on the three-cycle
model defined by Harden and colleagues (Harden et al, 1999). The model classified
the Dundee twelve outcome model into three dimensions which provides a framework
for medical program development. This model has been recommended by few
preliminary studies (Kim 2012 and Kember 2005) to be used in other healthcare
professional program. The three dimensions of this model depict what the graduate is
able to do, how do the graduate approach a given task and the development of the
graduates personal attributes.
3.5
The University of Dundee medical school, one of the leading UK Medical schools
who was ranked 5th in the Guardian 2013 University Guide applied the OBE in 1997.
This approach showed a promising result where their students showed the highest
level of confidence of all UK medical students. The students mentioned that their
school education equipped them well for their first postgraduate year (Davis, 2003).
Aga Khan University Medical College in Pakistan is another university who adopted
OBE and showed an encouraging result (Davis et al, 2007)
The taking into consideration of a competency-based method to teaching and learning of this subject using an OBE curriculum is critical. Some of the benefits are:
A new standard of skills: This is indicated by graduated pharmacist capabilityand
improvement of their abilities.
A renewed dedication to outcomes: OBE curricula, with their emphasis on graduate capacities, could meet universitys mission to prepare pharmacy professionals to
serve their people and communities.
A system to advertise a true continuum of pharmacy education: By determining
expertises and turning points for each stage of pharmacy education and learning and
technique, OBE could promote vertical and straight combination of training applications, from undergraduate pharmacy education to continuous professional development.
An approach to advertise learner-centred curricula: By giving encounters within a
much more pliable period and focusing on the student's advancement, OBE could aid
pharmacy student to be involved in a process that advances at their very own pace.
A method to de-emphasize time-based training in healthcare: Transitions from undergraduate education and learning to post-graduate education and learning to continuing expert development or upkeep of capability would certainly be based mainly on
evidence of abilities rather than on currently widely used time frames. Time then
becomes a source for education and learning, not the standard yardstick for
knowledge learned.
Potential for mobility of training: The adoption of a competency-based strategy
could facilitate the activity of pharmacy student.
C.M.Long et al
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
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C.M.Long et al
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