Impact of evidence-based pharmacotherapy (EBP) elective course on fourth year students’ performance

Introduction: Evidenced-based clinical reasoning and literature evaluation skills are essential aspects of pharmacy education and a variety of methods to incorporate these skills into the pharmacy curriculum exist. The authors sought to determine whether an evidence-based pharmacotherapy (EBP) elective course that focused on journal club presentations improved performance during Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs). Methods: Students enrolled in the EBP course were compared to peers not enrolled in the course during the 2009-2011 academic years. Student performance in patient care, clinical reasoning, and literature evaluation domains was assessed. These domains included scores on APPEs, pharmaceutical care ability profile (PCAP), journal clubs, patient presentations, and seminars. Results: This analysis included 368 APPEs completed by EBP students and 2922 APPEs completed by non-EBP students. Mean scores on APPEs were 90.36% and 89.75% for the EBP and non-EBP groups (p=0.218). Performance on other measures of clinical reasoning and literature evaluation were also comparable. Conclusion: The analysis of this study found that enrollment in an elective course focused on intensive literature evaluation, presentations, and clinical application did not result in measurable differences in existing performance metrics during APPEs.