Abstract:

In the University of Barcelona, the degree of Pharmacy lasts five years and it includes three different subjects of Physiology and Pathophysiology (PP-I, PP-II and PP-III in the third, fourth and fifth semesters, respectively). One of the main organic systems studied in the first one is the Nervous System, the second subject includes the Cardiovascular System and the third one the Respiratory System, among others. The students often consider these subjects as isolated parts and they do not realise about the interrelationship between the contents. This scenario is also common for the rest of the subjects in the degree.

In order to promote integrative knowledge among the Pharmacy degree, various teachers from different subjects and Department Sections (including Molecular Biology and Genomics, Physiology and Pathophysiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Toxicology, and Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Pathology) developed an innovative teaching project (REDICE16-1461 and REDICE18-2270). The project consisted in creating a clinical case (focused in tobacco smoking) that could be applied as a transversal tool to promote complementary knowledge around this case with the final goal of making the students more conscious about health consequences of smoking. In addition, the application of the clinical case tried to promote some skills development such as the ability to interpret clinical data and scientific contents.

The clinical case was based in a young smoking woman who started very early in life to have clinical consequences due to the impact of tobacco smoking. The teachers from each subject adapted the story to include activities regarding the pathophysiology caused by the components of tobacco smoking in each of the main systems studied: the Nervous System (PP-I), the Cardiovascular System (PP-II) and the Respiratory System (PP-III).

In PP-I, the clinical case was approached by several questions given to students about nicotinic receptors: tissue distribution, activation and effects. Students worked these questions autonomously and discussed them in a seminar.

In PP-II, several activities related to the case, including connections with PP-I and PP-III, had to be solved by the students organized in pairs. As a final product, they had to deliver a report that was later solved in a feed-back session in the classroom. This activity constituted 15 % of the global mark. The final exam also included some questions related to these contents.

In PP-III, the clinical case was incorporated with a series of activities designed to study the contribution of the smoking habit in different respiratory diseases. Moreover, the integration of the contents of this subject with those of previous subjects was promoted. Students had bibliographic material at disposal and a specific seminar about these activities was performed.

The surveys performed along the transversal case implementation allowed to conclude that the different activities helped in providing an integrative view of the overall contents within the three subjects of Physiology and Physiopathology from the degree of Pharmacy as well as awareness of health effects of smoking.

Acknowledgements:
This study was supported by REDICE16-1461 and REDICE18-2270 grants (Institut de Ciències de l’Educació, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain).

Keywords:

Clinical case, tobacco smoking, integrative learning, physiology and physiopathology, Pharmacy degree.