Teaching Autonomic Cardiovascular Pharmacology to Medical Students: An Innovative Worksheet Approach

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Introduction: Autonomic (ANS) pharmacology is a fundamental part of any medical education curriculum and presents unique learning challenges. Students at a US allopathic medical school created a worksheet as a novel approach to improving student learning of and confidence with cardiovascular (CV) ANS pharmacology during the pre-clinical curriculum. Methods: The student who created the cardiovascular ANS worksheet introduced it as a supplemental learning tool to the class of 2023 in their first semester of the first year in a foundational biomedical science course. The worksheet allows students to draw changes in heart rate and blood pressure when ANS drugs are administered individually and in combination. A self-assessment tool was also created to provide students immediate feedback on their learning following the completion of the worksheet. Voluntary surveys evaluated amount of usage, confidence with, and usefulness of the worksheet in learning the topic. Course exam results of students who used the tool were compared with all students in the previous year's class (control). Results: More than half the class participated in using the worksheet, self-assessments, and the surveys. Not only did self-confidence with the topic significantly increase but so did their performance on ANS-relevant exam questions when comparing those who used the worksheet with the previous year's class. Conclusions: An innovative worksheet with self-assessment tool for learning CV ANS pharmacology holds promise to enhance confidence with this topic as well as improve learning outcomes as measured by course exams.