ABSTRACT
Objective. To investigate student opinions of team assessment. Methods. University of Maryland Eastern Shore School of Pharmacy first-year (P1) to third-year (P3) students (n=125) completed an online survey regarding team assessments. Students rated their opinions on a Likert scale. Responses were examined using Mann-Whitney U test with respect to academic performance and class. Results. One hundred twenty-five students (75%) completed the survey. A majority of students agreed that team assessment was beneficial (90%). In contrast, 78% of the students perceived that the discussion helped clarify misconceptions. Students were not in agreement on occurrence of free riders (51%) and the use of peer evaluation (38%). Overall, students ranked the benefits of team assessment as improving individual score, then promoting collaboration, followed by enhancing understanding of material. Conclusion. Students had favorable opinions regarding team assessment. Educational benefits of team assessments include enhanced understanding of the material, being a meaningful activity for promoting collaboration, and developing communication skills.
Subject(s)
Cooperative Behavior , Curriculum , Education, Pharmacy/methods , Educational Measurement/methods , Schools, Pharmacy , Students, Pharmacy/psychology , Adolescent , Adult , Curriculum/trends , Education, Pharmacy/trends , Female , Humans , Male , Schools, Pharmacy/trends , Time Factors , Young AdultABSTRACT
Lethal injection is the preferred method for the execution of condemned prisoners in the United States. A recent decision of The European Union to prohibit the export of drugs used in capital punishment to the USA along with domestic firms ceasing to manufacture these drugs has resulted in a drug shortage and a search for alternative drugs and new drug combinations that have not been previously validated for inducing death. As a consequence, some of the executions did not proceed as expected and sparked public debate regarding whether recent executions by lethal injection serve the purpose of avoiding "cruel and unusual punishment" in executions. Moreover, a cottage industry comprised of compounding pharmacies as emerged as a source of drug combinations used in capital punishment. Although there is a growing trend toward the abolishment of capital punishment in United States, the controversy concerning the efficacy of drug and involvement of health care professionals in the execution procedure is far from over.
