Presenting clinical pharmacology and therapeutics: the course in pharmacotherapeutics.

To aid the rational choice and prescribing of drugs a normative (ideal) problem-solving model was developed, and based on this model a course in pharmacotherapeutics for small groups of fifth year medical students was developed. The general objective is that students will learn the skills required to choose and prescribe drugs rationally. The program consists of about 10 plenary sessions and the principle role of the teacher is to guide the process. The main teaching methods are: Modified Essay Questions (MEQ), explanatory exercises and practical training sessions. Special teaching materials have been developed. For the examination the Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) is used.