Impact of Completion of a Pre-Pharmacy Biochemistry Course and Competency Levels in Pre-Pharmacy Courses on Pharmacy Student Performance

Ruth Vinall,Parto Khansari,L Douglas Ried,Eugene Kreys,Jason Mcdowell

doi:10.3390/pharmacy7030117

Abstract

Poor performance in foundational science courses, which are usually taken during the first or second year of pharmacy school, can have several negative consequences including increases in student drop-out rates and increases in the number of dismissals and remediating students. The primary goal of the current study was to determine whether completion of a pre-pharmacy biochemistry course and/or performance on a biochemistry competency test (administered at the beginning of the pharmacy program) are associated with pharmacy student performance in foundational science courses and overall academic performance. A secondary goal was to determine whether performance in pre-pharmacy courses and/or student demographics are associated with pharmacy student performance. Prospective univariate analyses (n = 75) determined that completion of a pre-pharmacy biochemistry course is not associated with pharmacy student performance. However, performance on a biochemistry competency test was associated with performance in Biochemistry and Cell&Molecular Biology (p = 0.002). Furthermore, post-hoc analyses determined that pre-pharmacy cumulative chemistry GPA correlates with performance in both the Biochemistry and Cell&Molecular Biology and Medicinal Chemistry foundational science courses (p = 0.002 and p = 0.04, respectively) and can predict first year GPA (p = 0.002). The combined data indicate that further assessment of the impact of pre-pharmacy competency in biochemistry and chemistry on pharmacy student success is warranted.

Highlights

The highest levels of pharmacy student failure and attrition are typically observed during the first and second years of pharmacy school when foundational science courses such as biochemistry and medicinal chemistry are usually taught [1,2]
The combined data indicate that improving student performance in Biochemistry could help improve performance in both the Biochemistry and Cell&Molecular Biology and Medicinal Chemistry foundational science courses
We demonstrate that completion of pre-pharmacy biochemistry does not impact performance in the Biochemistry and Cell&Molecular Biology or the Medicinal Chemistry foundational sciences courses, we show that competency in biochemistry at the beginning of a pharmacy program is strongly associated with subsequent performance in the Biochemistry and Cell&Molecular

Summary

Introduction

The highest levels of pharmacy student failure and attrition are typically observed during the first and second years of pharmacy school when foundational science courses such as biochemistry and medicinal chemistry are usually taught [1,2]. Loss of students can jeopardize program accreditation while increases in the number of remediating students can strain program resources. It is noteworthy that many students who fail foundational science courses continue to underperform throughout their pharmacy program; course failure in the first year correlates strongly with course failure in subsequent academic years and with board exam failure [1,3,4,5,6]. Course failure can cause significant financial loss as well as increased stress levels. Several of Pharmacy 2019, 7, 117; doi:10.3390/pharmacy7030117 www.mdpi.com/journal/pharmacy

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