On the pedagogy of pharmacological communication: a study of final semester health science students.
BACKGROUND
There is a need to improve design in educational programmes for the health sciences in general and in pharmacology specifically. The objective of this study was to investigate and problematize pharmacological communication in educational programmes for the health sciences.


METHODS
An interview study was carried out where final semester students from programmes for the medical, nursing and specialist nursing in primary health care professions were asked to discuss the pharmacological aspects of two written case descriptions of the kind they would meet in their everyday work. The study focused on the communication they envisaged taking place on the concerns the patients were voicing, in terms of two features: how communication would take place and what would be the content of the communication. A phenomenographic research approach was used.


RESULTS
The results are presented as outcome spaces, sets of categories that describe the variation of ways in which the students voiced their understanding of communication in the two case descriptions and showed the qualitatively distinct ways in which the features of communication were experienced.


CONCLUSIONS
The results offer a base of understanding the students' perspectives on communication that they will take with them into their professional lives. We indicate that there is room for strengthening communication skills in the field of pharmacology, integrating them into programmes of education, by more widely implementing a problem-based, a case-oriented or role-playing pedagogy where final year students work across specialisations and there is a deliberate effort to evoke and assess advanced conceptions and skills.
Department of Pedagogical, Curricular and Professional Studies, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. ann.zetterqvist@ped.gu.se.
Ann
A
Zetterqvist
Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. patrik.aronsson@pharm.gu.se.
Patrik
P
Aronsson
Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Division of Drug Research/Clinical Pharmacology, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. staffan.hagg@liu.se.
Staffan
S
Hägg
Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Division of Drug Research/Clinical Pharmacology, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. karin.kjellgren@liu.se.
Karin
K
Kjellgren
Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Division of Drug Research/Clinical Pharmacology, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. margareta.reis@liu.se.
Margareta
M
Reis
Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. gunnar.tobin@pharm.gu.se.
Gunnar
G
Tobin
Department of Pedagogical, Curricular and Professional Studies, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. shirley.booth@gu.se.|School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. shirley.booth@gu.se.
Shirley
S
Booth
D000368:Aged; D003142:Communication; D003479:Curriculum; D004512:Education, Pharmacy / Q000458:organization & administration; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011361:Professional Competence; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013339:Students, Pharmacy / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013548:Sweden; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods