INTRODUCTIONPoor prescribing is probably the most common cause of preventable medication errors and many of these events involve junior doctors. In 2009, an electronic problem-based therapeutics course developed at the University of Michigan Medical School (UMMS) was translated and adapted for use at the University of Zagreb Medical School (UZMS).
METHODSAfter students from both schools took the course in 2010, we compared their responses with an online questionnaire addressing the course quality and its effectiveness.
RESULTSThere were no statistically significant differences in the overall average grades awarded for the course (UZMS 4.11 Ϯ 0.86 vs. UMMS 3.96 Ϯ 0.93; 95% CI mean difference (MD) -0.36, 0.07; P = 0.175) with both student groups expressing high satisfaction rates with its quality, accessibility and overall design. UZMS students reported spending less time working through the course than their American colleagues (2.14 Ϯ 1.01 vs. 2.89 Ϯ 1.02 on a five point Likert scale; 95% CI MD 0.51, 0.99; P < 0.05). Furthermore, Croatian students indicated greater difficulty with course materials (3.54 Ϯ 0.59 vs. 3.25 Ϯ 0.59; 95% CI MD -0.42, -0.15; P < 0,05) and weekly multiple choice questions (3.83 Ϯ 0.62 vs. 3.4 Ϯ 0.61; 95% CI MD -0.58, -0.29; P < 0,05) compared with the UMMS students.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.