Development and implementation of an integrated cardiovascular module in a PharmD curriculum

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Spring 2000 by Sprague, Jon E, Christoff, Jeffrey, Allison, Jeffrey C, Kisor, David F, Sullivan, Donald L

The development and implementation of an integrated cardiovascular module occurred over a four-year period. The cardiovascular module integrated the following subject areas: pathophysiology, pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, pharmacokinetics, therapeutics and pharmacy practice. In order to accomplish this integration, a total of twelve faculty representing several major subject areas participated in the design and implementation of the module. The present manuscript discusses the developmental phases, implementation, and preliminary assessment of the course. Throughout the module, the coordinator met weekly with a focus group consisting of five randomly selected students. Immediately following the focus group meeting, the faculty involved in the course met to discuss case-reports, exam-writing assignments, and the results of the focus group discussion. At the completion of the module, traditional course evaluations as well as nominal group evaluations were used to evaluate the course. The comparison of the two different forms of course evaluations suggests that the nominal group method provides similar feedback in a more efficient manner. Finally, problems identified during the module are discussed as well as strategies that were utilized to rectify the problems. This cardiovascular module shows that cross discipline teaching can indeed work as long as faculty are willing to work together in a team fashion with each other and the students.

INTRODUCTION

In order to understand the development and implementation of the cardiovascular module, an overview of the pharmacy curriculum at Ohio Northern University (ONU) is needed. The first three years (pre-professional division) of the curriculum are offered under the regular quarter system, and consist of 162 credit hours. The final three years (professional division) are a modified 18-credit/quarter structure for the fall and winter quarters of the fourth year (P-4) and the spring quarter of the fifth year (P-5). The other quarters (from the spring quarter of the fifth year on) are structured into 5.5-week modules with nine credits given for each. The total number of credit hours required for graduation thus totals 324 quarter hours.

Pre-professional Division. In the pre-professional division, the student takes 18 credit hours per quarter for nine quarters. The Profession of Pharmacy (POP) sequence consisted of material traditionally taught in orientation, drug information, pharmacy calculations, law and health care systems, and includes the new component of early experiential exposure in which both community service and professional experiential hours are required. The latter includes shadowing experiences, family or nursing home monitoring, field trips, pharmacy team monitoring with faculty/students at clinical sites through e-- mail and video teleconferencing, etc. Although, the student may visit and/or communicate with distant sites, the student resides on-campus. The POP sequence provides student exposure to the practice of pharmacy and patient care. Table I gives a year-by-year and quarter-by-quarter overview of the courses offered in the pre-professional division. The student must have completed all pre-professional course work and general electives before entering the professional division. The objective of these pre-professional division courses is to develop the fundamentals and basic concepts necessary for continuation into the professional division.

Professional Division. The 13 modules in the professional division consist of required and basic skills units, therapeutic-- oriented on-campus units, pharmacy administration, pharmacy practice units, elective research and teaching units, and elective clinical clerkships. Most modules last 5.5 weeks and three pairs of modules coincide with the normal quarter calendar. Some modules are offered simultaneously during the fall and winter quarters (e.g., Pharmaceutical Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, POP) others are offered as the only course during a 5.5 week period. Table II outlines the P-4 through P-6 year using the quarter system. The Biomedical Science Module introduces the students to the basics of pathophysiology, pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, and pharmacodynamics. The fourth year POP sequence is designed to expose the students to: (i) chart review including interpretation of lab values and communication skills (eg, approach to the patient, conducting an interview, and disseminating drug information); and (ii) physical assessment including the concepts of drug therapy monitoring. The final module, known as the "capstone" module, integrates previous material (previous modules) in a comprehensive manner to reinforce the overall curriculum and examines comprehension of material from previous modules.

This manuscript outlines how the first therapeutic module, the cardiovascular module, was designed and implemented. Initially, the cardiovascular module was six weeks long and incorporated renal and pulmonary material. This was only for the first year of the modular system and allowed for timing to be determined. The College's curriculum committee verified that all predetermined subject material was covered throughout the modules. For example, "pain" is briefly discussed in the cardiovascular module with regards to myocardial infarction treatment and is covered in the oncology module relative to supportive cancer therapy. Pain is covered in great detail in the Central Nervous System module.