A model of pharmacology education: the experience of Istanbul Medical Faculty

This article describes the pharmacology education program that has been applied since 1990 at the Istanbul Medical Faculty. In Turkey, medical education lasts 6 years after 11 years of general training. Each year, approximately 350 students join the Istanbul Medical Faculty. The education is mainly in conventional form: basic sciences and elementary clinical information are given mostly as didactic lectures accompanying practical courses for small groups, with each group consisting of about 50 students during the first 3 years. In the subsequent 2 years, students have several clinical clerkships, and the last year is an internship. Pharmacology, the bridge between basic and clinical sciences, has a special place in the medical training. Accordingly, the courses were expanded to 3, 4, and 5 years, the sum of all courses being approximately 140 hours. Pharmacology education took place along with basic sciences in the first years but with clinical sciences in the later years and is based on active learning methods.