7. Problem Solving in community Practice

7.2 Study Groups The evaluation of this, third package was conducted at schools of pharmacy in three different institutions from the PCCAL consortium: University of Bath, University of Wales, Cardiff and University of Brighton. Unlike the students involved in the evaluation of the previous two packages, the students in this study were not first years. In fact, this particular package is used very variably by universities according to the structure of their undergraduate syllabus and is dependent, in particular, upon the timing of the dispensing teaching element within the overall programme. This study includes second and third year students and later it will be shown that this had a marked effect upon the success of the package with particular groups. In the same way as the first two studies, the whole cohort was evaluated, giving a total sample size is 187. Table 15 below shows the breakdown of this, together with teaching methods and the year of students involved.

TABLE 15: STUDY GROUPS FOR PROBLEM SOLVING IN COMMUNITY PRACTICE University Number of valid cases Teaching Method Year of Undergraduate Course Bath 66 Time-tabled class without tutor 2nd year Cardiff 88 Time-tabled class without tutor 3rd year Brighton 33 Extended study on a casual basis 2nd year

In section 7.3 below, each study and specific findings relating to it are outlined.