Mock proposals and other group assignments: Bridging diactic research evaluation skill to research applications

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Fall 2000 by Sauer, Karen Ann, Draugalis, JoLaine Reierson

Mock Proposals and Other Group Assignments: Bridging Didactic Research Evaluation Skills to Research Applications)

An educational strategy was developed to create a means for students to connect skills introduced in a course sequence during the second professional year with the evaluative PharmD project conducted later in the curriculum. Fifty-seven students were divided into ten groups. Using a published article, each group developed a mock project proposal and accompanying human subjects forms following prescribed PharmD Project Guidelines. The student groups also critiqued research designs used in previous PharmD projects using skills applied in the earlier courses. Application of the procedure outlined in the PharmD Project Guidelines to group assignments provided a means of rehearsing the process without the intimidation of working alone. The uncertainty and anxiety typical of task initiation was decreased for this group of students as they began work on their evaluative PharmD projects.

INTRODUCTION

As outlined in the CAPE educational outcomes, in order for pharmacy students to successfully practice pharmaceutical care, they must be able to evaluate their endeavors(1). This need was recognized in our college during the planning stages of our PharmD program and addressed by the requirement that each student complete a formal evaluative project. Since the process can be agonizing for students and faculty, faculty members continually search for ways to better prepare the students for the process of conducting a PharmD project.

The faculty members who have worked extensively with PharmD students in courses related to research, have discovered that many students have difficulties making the transition from the evaluation of published work to the application of these same principles to their own PharmD projects. Modifications over the years have produced modest improvements. The latest effort is described in this article.

Throughout the article the educational strategy is referred to as "bridging exercises." This phrase was chosen because the exercises bridge or connect skills between courses and years in the curriculum. It is hoped that by providing the "bridges" our students will be less likely to "drown" in their PharmD projects.

BACKGROUND

The educational strategy was implemented in PhPr 425, Preparation for Pharmacy Clerkship. This course was developed to cover a potpourri of topics prior to the selection of advanced practice rotation sites. The PhPr 425 course coordinator is also the course coordinator for PhPr 896a, Pharmacy Practice Project (also known as the PharmD project). The PharmD project requires students to submit a proposal, conduct an evaluative project, report the findings in a written report, and present the projects to faculty members and students in a formal setting. This process has been previously described(2).

The challenge was to create a means for students to connect (or bridge) skills previously introduced in the curriculum to those subsequently used. The sequence of courses involved in the bridging exercises is diagramed in Figure 1. The purpose of PhPr 461, Methodology in Pharmacy Research, is to provide the students with the skills and principles of clinical research design and biostatistics needed for evaluation of the medical literature and assessment of research reports and proposals. Draugalis, Carter, and Slack have previously described the course(3). The following semester, students enroll in PhPr 454, Drug Information and Literature Evaluation. The purpose of this course is to provide the skills needed to prepare patientspecific responses to drug information questions, to conduct effective literature searches, to evaluate various types of literature, and to apply the concepts of medication misadventures, quality assurance, and formulary management.

The students had been previously provided with extensive course materials in PhPr 461 and PhPr 454. Course objectives such as "Discuss ways to formulate a research or evaluation question," and, "List ten steps in planning a project proposal" were added to PhPr 454 in an attempt to push the students to commence thinking about PharmD project ideas as well as provide some reference sources.

In PhPr 454, five subtypes of evaluation approaches were defined and discussed in lecture format. The students then completed a group exercise where five separate abstracts from previously completed PharmD projects were distributed. The group assignment was to categorize the type of evaluation conducted. It was followed by a class discussion regarding the various methods. Eventually, the class was debriefed via dissemination of two handouts which contain all five abstracts labeled as "Needs Assessment," "Program Planning," "Implementation Evaluation," "Progress Evaluation," or "Outcome Evaluation." The students saw five actual projects and also noted the variety of topics ripe for evaluation and study. Upon completion of the evaluation topic, specifics regarding the students' conduct of the evaluative PharmD project were covered. These included: "Identifying a Topic," "Formulation of the Research Questions," "Ten Steps in Planning a Good Project," and "PharmD Project Proposal Format." The final topic was a very brief introduction to the PharmD Project Guidelines.