A Critical Discussion of the Application of Problem-based Learning to Undergraduate Pharmacotherapeutic Teaching

Abstract

Problem-based learning (PBL) has caused a small revolution in the medical education community, and a lot of schools have adopted this method At the Institute of Pharmacy, the University of Oslo, PBL is being applied in a new course in pharmacotherapeutics. The course was established because it was felt that teaching pharmacology using conventional methods was insufficient, since newly graduated pharmacists were not able to apply their acquired knowledge. Useful inspiration and ideas have been obtained from a similar course design at the Institute of Biopharmacy, the University of Uppsala in Sweden. The experience from medical education has been extrapolated to pharmacy education. The students work in tutorial groups. They use written patient cases, the intent of which is to stimulate discussion in order to obtain knowledge about the correct application of drugs. Advantages and disadvantages of introducing PBL as a teaching method in undergraduate pharmacotherapeutic teaching is discussed.