Team-based learning in clinical pharmacology: a 5-year journey to a new course and increased students' self-confidence.

backgroundPrescribing drugs is a complex skill that medical students usually need to demonstrate immediately upon graduation. Team-based learning, one of the student-centered teaching methods, is promising in fostering prescribing and medication optimization skills. This paper aims to share the step-by-step process of integrating team-based learning into clinical pharmacology course at Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, and demonstrate its benefit through changes in students’ self-confidence in selected skills.

methodsThe transition from the traditional format to team-based learning in clinical pharmacology was prompted by the positive experience of introducing structured case reports to the existing course. The transition itself began with defining the elements for team-based learning and continued with their harmonized, stepwise development. Teacher training was conducted simultaneously. The pilot team-based clinical pharmacology course was launched in the 2023/2024 academic year. A questionnaire was created to measure changes in students’ self-evaluation of their pharmacology general knowledge prior to and following the course, and to assess their level of self-confidence in eight prescribing and medication optimization skills. The voluntary questionnaire was disseminated to students enrolled in the pilot course (2023/2024). Responses were then compared with those collected from students enrolled in the traditional course (2022/2023).

resultsWe have developed a team-based clinical pharmacology course covering 15 transferable topics across medical specialties over five years. Each topic has pre-class reading and embedded concept-check exercises, alongside complementary video-lectures hosted on a training platform. Each topic is complemented by eight questions for a readiness assessment test and at least one virtual patient/scenario for team application. The particulars of each step and its time sequence constitute unique data not published in such details previously. The benefits of the transition manifested as a statistically significant difference in students’ self-confidence in six out of eight prescribing and medication optimization skills with a questionnaire response rate of 66% and 58%, respectively.

conclusionOur results demonstrate that team-based learning in clinical pharmacology is a feasible and beneficial approach that can potentially improve medical students’ confidence in prescribing skills. Although a one-size-fits-all approach is not possible, we provide guidance on transitioning from a traditional course to a team-based one.