Incorporating physical manipulatives into an integrated pharmacotherapy course to reinforce antimicrobial spectrum of activity.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Teaching and learning the spectrum of activity (SOA) of antimicrobial agents can be a challenge in pharmacy education. This study describes the implementation and assessment of a novel tool to aid in the instruction of SOA. Physical manipulatives were used as an active-learning technique to model bacterial pathogens for antimicrobial SOA in an infectious diseases (ID) integrated medication therapy management course.

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: Pharmacy students enrolled in two consecutive years of the ID course were provided the opportunity to utilize a set of manipulatives for in-class activities and out-of-class practice. The manipulatives were small, colored building blocks that could be used to model bacterial pathogens for antimicrobial SOA. A key was included with each set of blocks, color-coding each block to represent a different bacterial pathogen or pathogen group. Blocks were used during classroom instruction to model the SOA of antimicrobial agents, compare/contrast SOA between medications, and model bacterial pathogens requiring empiric coverage for various infections, allowing students to produce "bug-drug" matches. Course data from the previous year was utilized to compare pre-implementation aggregate performance with post-implementation data. Performance on SOA-related questions was assessed during the course, using an independent samples t-test.

FINDINGS: The intervention group exhibited a statistically significant increased mean score on test questions relating to SOA as compared to the control group.

SUMMARY: The use of manipulatives was associated with improved performance on SOA-related questions in an integrated ID course of pharmacy students.