Using case-based reviews to improve student exam performance

ObjectiveThe objective of this project was to assess the impact on student exam performance of case-based exam reviews, which were developed and delivered using an interdisciplinary team of pharmacists and respiratory therapists.MethodsThe activity was designed to emphasize application of curricular content in the authentic context of a medical team. An interprofessional educational team approach was utilized, as the pharmacy course coordinator and two respiratory therapy faculty members joined in a collaborative effort to design and deliver the case-based final exam review.ResultsA 28-question question sub-set of final exam questions used for between-years comparisons yielded statistically significant improvement in the students’ exam performance between 2013 (n = 83) and previous years when no case-based review occurred 2012 (n = 73). The investigators hypothesized that engaging pharmacy students at higher levels of cognition in an exam review would improve student exam performance. This hypothesis is supported by the modest increase (5.4%) in student exam performance that was achieved on a 28-question subset of the final exam questions over the previous year.ConclusionReplacing didactic pharmacy-led instructor led reviews with problem-based case reviews that include inter-professional perspectives had a positive impact on student exam performance. The case-based review intervention also connected educational experiences to practice-based competencies such as team-based care setting.