Teaching medicinal chemistry to meet outcome objectives for pharmacy students

Pharmacy practice demands that pharmacists draw upon competencies and outco mes that enable them to perform the functions that support the delivery of pharmaceutical care. Many:pharmacy schools have established specific outcom e objectives for their students based on:published pharmaceutical care func tions, practice skills and revised accreditation standards. To meet:these o bjectives, Students must examine clinical situations rationally and logical ly, then gather, organize, interpret and analyze data pertinent to the pati ent in question. Students must be competent to make judgements and therapeu tic decisions based on available data, learn from past problem solving succ esses and failures, and integrate knowledge to : improve the quality of lif e for;patients. Schools and colleges of pharmacy must ensure that the facul ty responsible for instructing in the basic pharmaceutical sciences emphasi ze not only the core science that underpins their discipline, but also the relevance of that science to the contemporary practice of the profession. T he Structurally-Based Therapeutic Evaluation (SBTE) of drugs was introduced in the medicinal chemistry courses at Creighton University in 1995, and re ported to interested audiences in 1997. We believe that this instructional approach to medicinal chemistry is one way to help faculty bring practical relevance to the scientific classroom, and encourage:students to-meet pract ice-based outcomes with an understanding of the scientific rationale behind the practice decisions they will make as professionals.