1.Medical Students’ Perceptions on the Adequacy and Effectiveness of Pharmacology Teaching during Preclinical Years
NORAZLINA M ; SITI MARIAM B ; MOHAMAD-SHARIF MA ; NORAIN MM ; MUHAMMAD-ADAM AC ; HAZLINDA M ; DARISHINI G
Medicine and Health 2019;14(2):109-120
Pharmacology teaching during preclinical years is important for medical students
to make rational choices in choosing suitable treatment for patients in future.
Therefore, the present study determined the adequacy and effectiveness of
pharmacology teaching in the undergraduate medical program at the Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center (UKMMC). Suggestions for improvement of
the curriculum were also identified. An online questionnaire on the perceptions
of pharmacology teaching methodology was distributed to a total of 459 medical
students in 4th and 5th year at UKMMC. The questionnaire covered demographics,
perceptions about pharmacology teaching, the ideal teaching learning
methodology for learning pharmacology, pharmacology topics which are useful
for future clinical practice, the pharmacology topic which was most interesting and
recommendations for improvement. The response rate was 46.4% and majority of
the participants were females (65.7%). Most of the students agreed that interactive
learning was more helpful than didactic lectures (88.0%). Seventy percent of the
students reported that pharmacology lectures in the preclinical years were helpful
during the clinical years. Percentage of students who agreed that pharmacology
teaching in their preclinical was adequate for their clinical practice was 47.0%.
There was no association between demographic variables (gender, race, year of
study and medical family background) and interest in pharmacology (p>0.05). In
conclusion, the pharmacology teaching during preclinical years was perceived
to be effective and useful for students’ clinical practice. More pharmacology
teaching sessions in clinical years was suggested which may improve adequacy of
pharmacology teaching.