A Virtual Pharmacology Course in a PBL Curriculum

Providing medical students with a solid foundation in pharmacology (pharm) can be challenging within the confines of an intensive problem‐based learning (PBL) curricula. To address deficits uncovered at our medical school, a pharm educator was hired in 2002 and a variety of methodologies were used to fill curricular gaps. We evaluated the curricular enhancements and outcomes that have resulted. To accomplish this goal, we reviewed course syllabi, learning objectives from lectures, course examinations, and United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 scores for academic years 2002–2003 and 2009–2010. Our analysis revealed a non‐significant increase in didactic pharm lectures in most courses, albeit a more structured learning environment with more pharm learning objectives (P<0.001). Additionally, students are incentivized to study PBL‐based pharm as the number of pharm questions on course examinations has increased (P<0.001). Analysis indicates that students who regularly attend recently‐implemented voluntary pharm review sessions score higher on USMLE Step 1 (P=0.038); of, course, this may reflect self‐selection bias. Our balanced, thoughtful and deliberate attention to pharm education is particularly important in an integrated, organ‐based, and significantly PBL‐driven curriculum.