Monash Rural Health, Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, Monash University, Northways Road, Churchill, VIC, 3842, Australia.
BMC Med Educ. 2022 May 2;22(1):337. doi: 10.1186/s12909-022-03324-8.
Pharmacology is a cornerstone of medical education as it underlies safe prescribing practices. However, medical students have reported unease regarding their perceived proficiency in medical pharmacology. Despite the significant impetus to improve student outcomes, there is little analysis available of the techniques used by medical students to learn, retain and apply medical pharmacology knowledge.
A mixed-methods, student-focused approach was conducted to design and evaluate specific resources developed to address gaps in pharmacology education. This methodology comprised an anonymised scoping survey, followed by semi-structured focus group interviews. We then developed a flashcard resource as an intervention to support long-term revision for academic and clinical success. This resource was released to a cohort of 100 graduate entry preclinical medical students who were invited at the end of year to evaluate the intervention via a subsequent anonymous survey.
The scoping survey received 103 complete responses. Surveys and focus group interviews revealed that only 50% of students engage in ongoing revision. Amongst our cohort, we identified that the evidence-based technique of spaced-repetition was particularly well regarded. Hence, we developed and evaluated a bespoke resource utilising Anki™, an open-source, spaced-repetition flashcard program. A total of 1208 flashcards spanning 156 distinct classes of drugs with supplementary summary tables, diagrams and explanatory video and summary guides were created. Designed as a strategic revision tool to reinforce learning, evaluation showed students greatly appreciated the "comprehensive" and "well formatted" Anki™ resource that supported existing teaching modalities, with a global rating of 3.8 out of 5.
Strategic and personalised resources for medical pharmacology education that assist with in-semester revision and long-term retention are highly valued amongst students for examination preparation and preparedness for practice. Collectively, these results reflect a novel approach to identifying and addressing weaknesses in existing learning resources in a manner that is inclusive of, and acceptable to, medical students.
药理学是医学教育的基石，因为它是安全处方实践的基础。然而，医学生报告说，他们对自己在医学药理学方面的熟练程度感到不安。尽管有很大的动力来提高学生的学习成果，但对于医学生学习、保留和应用医学药理学知识的技术，几乎没有分析。
采用以学生为中心的混合方法，设计和评估特定资源，以解决药理学教育中的差距。这种方法包括匿名范围调查，然后进行半结构化焦点小组访谈。然后，我们开发了一个抽认卡资源作为支持学术和临床成功的长期复习的干预措施。该资源提供给 100 名研究生预科医学学生，在学年结束时邀请他们通过随后的匿名调查来评估干预措施。
范围调查共收到 103 份完整回复。调查和焦点小组访谈显示，只有 50%的学生进行持续复习。在我们的队列中，我们发现基于证据的间隔重复技术特别受欢迎。因此，我们开发并评估了一种利用 AnkiTM 的定制资源，AnkiTM 是一种开源的、间隔重复的抽认卡程序。创建了总共 1208 张抽认卡，涵盖了 156 种不同类别的药物，还有补充的总结表、图表和解释性视频以及摘要指南。作为一种强化学习的战略复习工具，评估表明学生非常欣赏“全面”和“格式良好”的 AnkiTM 资源，该资源支持现有的教学模式，总评分为 3.8 分（满分 5 分）。
医学药理学教育的战略和个性化资源，有助于学生在考试准备和实践准备方面进行学期内复习和长期保留，深受学生欢迎。总的来说，这些结果反映了一种新颖的方法，可以以包容和接受医学生的方式来识别和解决现有学习资源中的弱点。
