Trial and evaluation of pre-clinical training: Collaboration between a basic science faculty and a clinical faculty member

Abstract

Recently, it has been reported that only a small number of sixth-year students who had undergone a long-term pre-clinical training in the fifth year found organic chemistry useful. One of the factors for this was that pharmacy students did not learn about the utility of basic science in solving clinical problems in university education. Therefore, an attempt was made to introduce pre-clinical training in organic chemistry in the sixth year by collaboration between a faculty member from the organic chemistry department and a clinical faculty member to overcome the incompatibility mentioned by students. A questionnaire survey was administered to 173 participants who had participated in the pre-clinical training. The questionnaire comprised 10 questions, and the free descriptions by respondents were analyzed using text mining. The results showed that more than 90 percent of the pharmacy students felt organic chemistry to be useful in solving a clinical problem, after they underwent the pre-clinical training.