Gagné’s 9 Events of Instruction With Active Learning: Teaching Student Pharmacists How to Measure Blood Pressure

Abstract

As the scope of practice for pharmacists expands to include rendering physical assessment procedures, colleges and schools of pharmacy are increasingly incorporating various assessment skills into the curriculum. Pharmacy practice faculty are increasingly tasked with teaching and assessing learners on professional competency in entrustable professional activities and skills such as manual blood pressure measurement. Manual measurement using a sphygmomanometer and a stethoscope is considered the gold standard with regard to evaluating blood pressure. As pharmacy faculty begin to develop courses on physical assessment, a step-by-step, evidence-based andragogic/pedagogic method for designing, planning, instructing, and assessing learner proficiency is essential. The principles and techniques of active learning are frequently discussed and increasingly incorporated into the curricular and teaching philosophies of colleges and schools of pharmacy. However, the practical application of andragogic/pedagogic principles toward lesson planning and curation of active learning is infrequently discussed. In this article, we aim to illustrate a deliberate approach to designing and operationalizing active learning for auscultatory manual blood pressure measurement within the framework of Gagné’s 9 events of instruction. For each design and instruction step, we propose user-friendly, high-impact operational practices derived empirically from education science, experience, and observations. Schematically, the approach described is intended to also facilitate instructor metacognition and knowledge building of applied andragogy/pedagogy through pre hoc, ad hoc, and post hoc reflection. Pragmatically, the approach accommodates active learning lesson planning, promotes transparency of teaching and learning, and is generalizable and applicable toward the instruction of various physical assessment procedures within the health professions.