Improving Dental Students' Long-Term Retention of Pharmacy Knowledge with "Medication Minutes"

A major challenge in foundational science courses in dental curricula is the application of information from the classroom to a clinical setting. To bridge this gap, the aim of this study was to increase students' learning in a foundational pharmacology course through increasing clinical relevance and using formative assessment. Second-year dental students in an introductory pharmacology course were presented material in a traditional basic science lecture format and in brief examples of pharmacy-generated clinical content (Medication Minutes). Short-term retention was assessed with a series of five post-class session, non-graded quizzes, each containing four questions: two knowledge-based (one from basic science material and one Medication Minute) and two application-based (one from basic science material and one Medication Minute). Ten knowledge-based (basic science material) questions and ten application-based (Medication Minutes) questions were included on exams throughout the semester. The primary outcome was to measure long-term retention using performance on these questions on an assessment the following semester. Additionally, the impact of student engagement on examination performance was evaluated based on the number of quizzes each student completed. Students who completed three or more quizzes (n=43, 53%) were designated as "highly engaged," while students who completed less than three quizzes (n=36, 44%) were defined as "less engaged." Two students (3%) were excluded for not completing the long-term assessment or not consenting to the study. On short-term retention measures, the students performed better on the Medication Minute (M=0.76) than basic science (M=0.58) (p<0.001) material; however, on the in-semester examinations, there was no difference in performance. On long-term retention measures, the students performed better on Medication Minute material (M=0.64) than basic science material (M=0.33) (p<0.001); this was true for both highly engaged and less-engaged students. These results suggest that teaching pharmacology in a clinical context yielded better long-term retention than teaching with a non-clinical focus.