The Effect of Case-Based Instruction on Physician Assistant Pharmacology Education

Case-based learning (CBL) is a widely adopted instructional method in medical education, guiding students through real-world scenarios to accomplish specific learning objectives. Despite literature supporting its use in medical education at the Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) level and in some other health professions, there is a lack of research surrounding its utility in physician assistant (PA) education compared to the more traditional, lecture-based instruction. This difference is particularly true in pharmacology, a subject well-suited for the application of basic science to clinical medicine through CBL.  Methods: Fifteen first-year PA students enrolled in an entry-level pharmacology course participated in six pharmacology learning cycles, each learning cycle consisting of a discrete didactic session followed by a corresponding case-based learning session on the same topic. All first-year students enrolled in the program were allowed to participate voluntarily in the data collection; however, the curriculum was required for all students. For each topic, students completed multiple-choice evaluations at three time points: before didactic teaching sessions, after didactic teaching sessions but before case-based sessions, and after case-based sessions. At the conclusion of the six learning cycles, students completed a 12-item Likert survey to assess their perspectives on the CBL sessions.  Results: The average student score across all six case evaluations demonstrated a statistically significant increase in average scores from predidactic (mean = 31% correct; SD = 8.0) to the postdidactic evaluations (p = 0.01; mean = 42%; SD = 13), and then again to postdidactic to post-CBL evaluations (p < 0.01; mean = 53%; SD = 15). Evaluations within individual learning cycles, however, showed varying results across assessments. Students felt CBL improved their understanding and prepared them for their board exams (73.33% agree or strongly agree, N = 11). However, students had slightly mixed opinions about how useful CBL was for their understanding of the learning topics compared with their didactics, and positive opinions on CBL being introduced as a new learning method and its impact on board exam preparation.

CBL is an effective learning method in supplementing traditional didactic teaching in PA pharmacology education, leading to significant learning gains and favorable student feedback. Unlike prior studies that compared CBL directly with conventional teaching methods, this study demonstrates the supplementary benefit of CBL.