Learning to "think like a pharmacist": Problem-solving activities for first-year pharmacy students

The purpose of this article is to describe an approach to incorporate a modified problem-based learning (PEL) format into a first professional year curriculum. For each case, groups of eight students meet with a faculty member and a community practitioner in two sessions to work through well-defined pharmacy problems using a method adapted from classical PEL. Cases are written from the perspective of a pharmacist practicing pharmaceutical care in a community pharmacy setting. A case writer designs scenarios to integrate content from across the curriculum and builds in dilemmas to encourage students to consider new roles in pharmacy. Early feedback from practitioners working with students who have participated in the first year is positive. In this article, the authors describe the instructional method, effective case writing for first year students and their experience in assessing and improving the activities.