title: Impact of a required pharmaceutical calculations course on mathematics ability and knowledge retention.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students' mathematics ability by content area before and after completing a required pharmaceutical calculations course and to analyze changes in scores.
  
  
  METHODS
  A mathematics skills assessment was administered to 2 cohorts of pharmacy students (class of 2013 and 2014) before and after completing a pharmaceutical calculations course. The posttest was administered to the second cohort 6 months after completing the course to assess knowledge retention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both cohorts performed significantly better on the posttest (cohort 1, 13% higher scores; cohort 2, 15.9% higher scores). Significant improvement on posttest scores was observed in 6 of the 10 content areas for cohorts 1 and 2. Both cohorts scored lower in percentage calculations on the posttest than on the pretest.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A required, 1-credit-hour pharmaceutical calculations course improved PharmD students' overall ability to perform fundamental and application-based calculations.
authors: University of Cincinnati, James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy, 3225 Eden Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45267-0004, USA. michael.hegener@uc.edu
authors: Michael A
authors: MA
authors: Hegener
authors: Shauna M
authors: SM
authors: Buring
authors: Elizabeth
authors: E
authors: Papas
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D054796:Drug Dosage Calculations; D004512:Education, Pharmacy / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics / Q000193:education*; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D013339:Students, Pharmacy
keywords: assessment; mathematics skills; pharmaceutical calculations
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