Mock proposals and other group assignments: Bridging didactic research evaluation skills to research applications

An educational strategy was developed to create a means for students to con nect skills introduced in a course sequence during the second professional year with the evaluative PharmD project conducted later in the curriculum. Fifty-seven students were divided into ten groups. Using a published articl e, each group developed a mock project proposal and accompanying human subj ects forms following prescribed PharmD Project Guidelines. The student grou ps also critiqued research designs used in previous PharmD projects using s kills applied in the earlier courses. Application of the procedure outlined in the PharmD Project Guidelines to group assignments provided a means of rehearsing the process without the intimidation of working alone. The uncer tainty and anxiety typical of task initiation was decreased for this group of students as they began work on their evaluative PharmD projects.