(50) Evaluating Retention of Basic Drug and Prescription Information with Baseline Pharmacy Knowledge (BPK) Exams

Objective : Student knowledge of top 200-300 drug info and other basic prescription information is crucial for pharmacy education, but many students struggle with long term retention. There is a need for teaching and evaluation methods that encourage long-term learning of this material.

Methods: Pharmacy faculty members developed a core content of Baseline Pharmacy Knowledge (BPK). A sequence of exams for P1-P3 students was implemented as a component of the Pharmacy Skills courses which students are enrolled in each semester of their didactic years. Content was added for the first 4 semesters and re-assessed to improve long-term retention; each exam was cumulative of all content assigned up to that point. This required students to retain all material culminating in comprehensive exams the 5th and 6th semesters. Students were required to earn >75% on each exam to progress to the next semester. If students failed to attain a passing grade on any individual attempt, they were required to re-assess. This ensured that students who were struggling to learn and maintain basic drug info and other essential pharmacy knowledge would gain this knowledge before progressing.

Results: Since all BPK content was included in student exams in the 4th semester, numbers of students needing reassessment were followed for the subsequent 2 semesters to assess ability to retain this information. The average number of students needing to reassess from the 1st exam of the 4th semester to the last exam of the 6th semester went from 6.49% to 0%.

Conclusions: A sequence of cumulative exams in didactic semesters was effective in improving the long term retention of top 200-300 drug info and other core pharmacy knowledge.