Methods and Findings in Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology
Vol. 24, Suppl. A, 2002, pp. 27-28
ISSN 0379-0355
Copyright 2002 Prous Science, S.A.
CCC: 0379-0355/2002
http://www.prous.com

Core Curriculum in Pharmacology for Veterinary Students

M.V. Clos Guillén

Departament de Farmacologia, de Terapèutica i de Toxicologia, Facultat Veterinaria,
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

Based on the general aim to define a core of knowledge in pharmacology, we analyzed the pharmacology syllabuses of Spanish veterinary schools (Zaragoza, Valencia, Murcia, Madrid, Las Palmas, León, Lugo, Córdoba and Barcelona) in order to create a pharmacology core curriculum for veterinary science courses.

The Advisory Committee on Veterinary Training (ACVT, 2000) of the European Commission and the Spanish Education and Science Ministry (Real decreto 1384/1991) defined the main requirements for the veterinary studies curriculum, in which pharmacology and pharmacy are considered to be basic subjects. Although changes have been introduced in the general studies plan (Real decreto 1267/94; Real decreto 614/97; Real decreto 779/98), they only affect the number of credits assigned to each subject, the number of subjects per year (or semester) and, therefore, the total number of credits per year.

The content of the pharmacology syllabuses in Spanish veterinary schools does not vary significantly. Nevertheless, there is considerable diversity in the time that each pharmacology department spends on developing such curricula. This is because the Ministry of Education and Science has only established a minimal number of credits for the pharmacology curriculum (8). Therefore, each university has decided on the required number of credits for pharmacology curriculum in accordance with their own criteria. Thus, the number of credits ranges from 11.5 to 24 depending on the veterinary school. Consequently, differences in the pharmacology syllabuses are mainly in the number of credits.

The British Pharmacology Society has recently published guidelines on core pharmacology curriculum for undergraduate veterinary courses (www.bps.ac.uk/ BPS.html). After comparing this core curriculum with pharmacology syllabuses from Spanish veterinary schools, no great differences were observed. The main difference observed was that none of the Spanish pharmacology syllabuses contained a course on drug legislation or dispensing veterinary medicine, whereas this had been included in the core pharmacology curriculum proposed by The British Pharmacology Society.

The curriculum presented is the result of consulting not only the contents of pharmacology syllabuses, but also the time spent in developing each course at Spanish veterinary schools. Taking into account the latter parameter, we have calculated the mean ± SEM for the main subjects and the percentage of total time spent on the syllabuses. The practical aspects of pharmacology were not evaluated because we think that they deserve separate treatment.

After analyzing the "General principles" section, a mean of 25.9% ± 3.1% was obtained (Fig. 1). Although considerable difference was observed between minimal (14.4%) and maximal (40%) percentages, the section on "Pharmacology of cellular mediators" showed the highest diversity with minimal and maximal values of 1.5% and 7%, respectively (3.16% ± 0.55%).

FIG. 1. Distribution of mean percent values for topics in veterinary pharmacology curricula.

In contrast, "Chemotherapy of infections and malignant disease" was the section that showed most agreement among the pharmacology syllabuses (22.5% ± 1.02%), with minimal and maximal values of 18% and 26.7%, respectively. As can be observed in Figure 1, sections on "General principles" and "Chemotherapy" have the greatest specific weight among pharmacology topics. "Drugs affecting the central nervous system" (14.9% ± 0.99) and "Drugs affecting the peripheral nervous system" (8.3% ± 0.56) are also subjects showing lower standard errors of mean. Based on these previous data, a core curriculum in pharmacology for veterinary students will be proposed and discussed subsequently.

Methods and Findings in Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology Vol. 24, Suppl. A, 2002, pp. 27-28
ISSN 0379-0355 Copyright 2002 Prous Science, S.A. CCC: 0379-0355/2002 http://www.prous.com