(293) Pharmaceutical Calculations Instructional Strategies to Impact Competency Outcomes

Objective : To determine if novel instructional modifications in Pharmaceutical Calculations can impact downstream competencies (Pharmaceutics/NAPLEX).

Methods: Various instructional changes were implemented incrementally from the Class of (CO) 2023 to 2026. Specific changes were: utilization of the “concentration cross” and provision of customized software tutors developed by faculty, administering clinically relevant examples, mandating in-class practice, incentives for perfect attendance, return to physical handouts rather than projected slides, increased stakes for graded homework, increasing faculty experience in the field and a decompressed curriculum. To determine the impact of the incremental changes, annual student performance was assessed on longitudinal questions, held in confidence to ensure naivety, from specific downstream segments within our curriculum and reported herein.

Results: From 2023 to 2026, the average student performance on calculation specific questions in our downstream Pharmaceutics course, improved significantly (from 46% to 82% correct). For exams within Pharmaceutics weighted heavily in calculations, student performance improved dramatically over the period (average percent correct for calculations questions improved from 58% to 80%). Further, the resulting average Pharmaceutics course grades improved by 10 points over the same period. In alignment, the percentage of deficient grades (D or F) decreased significantly from 76% deficient to 22% in the period. The impact was also noted in the number of high performers as 26% of students in the CO 2026 earned an A for the course compared to 0% in the CO 2023. Last, NAPLEX scores (just in) from calculations sectors also support longitudinal competency gains.

Conclusions: While grades in Pharmaceutical Calculations improved in the near term, the a priori goal was longitudinal, downstream competency. As hypothesized, the improved calculations competency dramatically impacted longitudinal performance.