title: Educational card games to teach pharmacotherapeutics in an advanced pharmacy practice experience.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To implement and assess the effectiveness of card games to teach pharmacotherapeutic topics to pharmacy students and to determine the relationship between students' assessment scores and their learning styles.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two card games, Cardiology Go Fish and Infectious Diseases Gin Rummy, were created and taught to pharmacy students enrolled in an advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE). Students were required to play each game for 1 hour, 3 times over a 6-week period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty-five students completed a 90-question assessment administered prior to and after the 6-week period in which the games were played. Students' cardiology and infectious diseases assessment scores improved significantly as compared with scores on pharmacy practice questions, 19.2% vs. 5.1%, (p < 0.001) and 10.3% vs. 5.1% (p = 0.006), respectively. Students learned from participating in the games regardless of their learning preference as determined by the VARK (visual, aural, read/write, kinesthetic) questionnaire; however, the cardiology assessment scores of students with a preference for kinetic learning improved the most.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Incorporating innovative learning tools such as card games into the curriculum of APPEs can enhance the educational experience of pharmacy students.
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, University of Southern Nevada, 11 Sunset Way, Henderson, NV 89014, USA. sbarclay@usn.edu
authors.forename: Sean M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Barclay
authors.forename: Meghan N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Jeffres
authors.forename: Ragini
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bhakta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003479:Curriculum; D004512:Education, Pharmacy / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010988:Play and Playthings; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000379:methods*; D013339:Students, Pharmacy; D013664:Teaching Materials; D055815:Young Adult