Teaching separate versus integrated pharmacology content.

With recent media attention on medication errors in nursing practice (Berens, 2000), nursing curricula must include a method of teaching pharmacology that promotes student learning. The purpose of this nonexperimental, descriptive exploratory study was to retrospectively compare two delivery methods: integrated pharmacology content throughout a 4-year curriculum and a separate pharmacology course offered during the sophomore year. Data, from a convenience sample of 299 senior nursing students who wrote the National League for Nursing computerized adaptive pharmacology test, were analyzed using chi-square. Findings demonstrated that teaching a separate pharmacology course did not result in an increase in scores. Faculty are, therefore, encouraged to plan defined content enhancement throughout the curriculum when pharmacology is taught as a separate course.