Integration of pharmacotherapy topics across the curriculum using a “Create-Your-Own-Patient Case” team project

BackgroundCreativity in didactic pharmacy education is documented in course design, delivery, and assessment; yet paucity exists in encouraging students' creativity toward the application, analysis, synthesis, and integration of knowledge in creating their own work.ObjectiveTo design, implement, and evaluate a creative team project within a psychopharmacotherapy course allowing students to (1) integrate prior content with psychiatric pharmacotherapy, (2) apply disease state knowledge, and (3) accurately correlate diagnoses' symptomatology to describe a patient through case narratives.DesignSecond-year Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students were randomly given a list of psychiatric/medical diagnoses and personality disorders and assigned to create a patient case within team-based frameworks during a six-day (36-h) psychopharmacotherapy course.ResultsAll teams accurately integrated assigned diagnoses in a patient-specific manner using varied levels of complexity, creating cases consistent with a 21-item rubric based on a comprehensive psychiatric/medical evaluation. Most teams (85%) accurately commented on their patients' mental status and assigned correct psychiatric evaluation and diagnostic tests to their patient. Individually, students reported great satisfaction and benefit from participating in this project. Evaluation of case content revealed areas of instruction within pharmacy curricula that may warrant further investigation, such as formal referrals to other providers, health literacy, physical assessment, and the use of peer evaluation.ConclusionsA creative project in which student teams synthesized their own patient cases allowed them to apply didactic content to integration of psychiatric/medical diagnoses as they synthesized a patient case narrative, and helped the instructor identify areas in which to optimize pharmacy instruction.