Masterclass Pharmacotherapy: A Succesful and Efficient Concept to Organize Near Peer Pharmacotherapy Teaching

Abstract

In many European medical schools, the department of pharmacology and clinical pharmacology is often small and staff may think they are not able to deliver a relatively labour-intensive contextual learning programme in (clinical) pharmacology (i.e. role-play sessions, working groups, student run clinics, etc). The aim of this study is to investigate if this ‘problem’ can be resolved by actively involving students in CPT teaching. The section Pharmacotherapy has many years of experience with active student involvement and organizes a masterclass in pharmacotherapy. The master class is for students who have shown particular aptitude during pharmacotherapy training sessions and is led by three student coordinators (who have previously followed the master class). Participants are trained to teach according to the WHO 6-step method and receive additional didactic training for small-group teaching. These participants then give pharmacotherapy training to younger (at least one year below them) students, under the supervision and coaching of experienced teachers. The student teachers are also trained by clinical experts (such as clinical pharmacologists, clinical specialists and pharmacists) to deepen their knowledge and therapeutic reasoning skills with regard to specific clinical cases. Besides explicit training for teaching sessions, other activities are organized for master class participants, such as in-depth sessions on interesting topics such as drugs, toxicology, drug dosing in patients with renal impairment, and visits to drug development facilities. With this concept it is possible to organize 14 differently themed pharmacotherapy training sessions for 350 students divided in 30 groups (2hrs each). These training sessions are organized yearly in medical bachelor year 1-3 and are cost efficient. Student evaluations of these training sessions consistently show high rating scores (average of 4.0-4.3 on a five point rating scale). The Masterclass Pharmacotherapy is a successful and efficient concept to organize near peer pharmacotherapy teaching.