Search Results (10)

Medical education is the paradigm of 21st century education and the current changes involve the adoption of integrative and comprehensive patient-centered teaching and learning approaches. Thus, curricular developers from George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences, and Technology of Targu Mures (G.E. Palade UMPhST of Targu Mures) have recently designed and implemented an innovative medical curriculum, as well as two valuable assessment tools for both theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Thus, during the first three preclinical years, the students will benefit from an organ- and system-centered block teaching approach, while the clinical years will focus on enabling students to achieve the most important practical skills in clinical practice, based on a patient bedside teaching system. In terms of theoretical knowledge assessment, the UNiX center at G.E. Palade UMPhST of Targu Mures, a recently designed center endowed with the latest next-generation technology, enables individualized, secured multiple-choice question-based assessments of the student’s learning outcomes. Moreover, an intelligent assessment tool for practical skills was also recently implemented in our branch in Hamburg, the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (O.S.C.E). This system uses direct observations for testing the student’s practical skills regarding anamnesis, clinical exams, procedures/maneuvers, the interpretation of laboratory tests and paraclinical investigations, differential diagnosis, management plans, communication, and medical counselling. The integrative, comprehensive, patient-centered curriculum and the intelligent assessment system, implemented in G.E Palade UMPhST of Targu Mures, help define innovation in education and enable the students to benefit from a high-quality medical education. Full article

The patient safety problem has been well established for over 20 years in the United States (U.S.), and there is a recognized focus on ensuring that health professions’ trainees receive explicit education in various patient safety principles and practices. While the literature provides examples of different approaches towards patient safety education for pharmacy students, there are few that focus on first-year pharmacy students. This educational observational study describes the implementation and evaluation of two 20 min patient safety learning activities integrated into a required pharmacy skills lab course. The first learning activity utilized a mock prescription and patient safety checklist that had students identify patient safety problems on the prescription, followed by a group discussion of implications for the patient. The second learning activity used images of common safety problems with a facilitated group discussion to have students identify systems-based solutions to those problems. Our study’s findings revealed that students were able to identify basic patient safety problems and safety solutions, although some additional foundational information may be needed, particularly for students who may not have pharmacy work experience. Additional research is needed to continue building a literature base on patient safety education approaches, particularly for first-year pharmacy students. Full article

An essential feature of pharmacy education is the teaching of theoretical knowledge with the support of practical work in the laboratory. When properly utilized, laboratory activities have the potential to enhance students’ achievement, conceptual understanding, and positive attitudes towards learning. In this pilot study, an augmented reality (AR) environment was designed and introduced for teaching laboratory skills in pharmacy education at the university level. The AR environment was used by pharmacy students (n = 36), featuring gate questions, information screens, Quick Response codes, think-aloud questions, and instant feedback. The environment was utilized with smart glasses and mobile devices with the aim of comparing the support to students’ performance. User experience was evaluated through self-efficacy beliefs and anxiety towards the technology. As a result, students found the environment a useful supplement to traditional laboratory teaching. Smart glasses and mobile devices were both accepted with great positivity but neither being clearly preferred over the other. Smart glasses were noted to provide sufficient feedback in the right stages of work. In contrast, mobile devices promoted the learning process more than the smart glasses. The self-efficacy results for mobile device use were higher, especially related to device handling and operating the AR environment. The pilot study gives educators valuable insights on the usability of AR technology in guiding laboratory tasks, although future work should involve larger and more diverse samples, as well as different learning tasks. Full article

Due to the heavy focus on development of communication skills, compounding laboratories and many practical workshops, undertaking a registerable pharmacist qualification in an online format is typically not an option for students. COVID-19 presented on-campus pharmacy students with the opportunity to experience online learning. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of on-campus pharmacy students who were required to move their studies to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. An interpretive phenomenological methodology was adopted, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with pharmacy students who were originally enrolled in on-campus learning and had to transition to online learning. Data were analyzed using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach whereby themes were identified to aid in the development of the phenomena guided by ‘lived experience’. Seven interviews were conducted with pharmacy students. Four emergent themes resulted from the interviews: (1) life as an on-campus pharmacy student, (2) preconceived ideas of online learning, (3) learning differences as an online pharmacy student and (4) the future of online pharmacy programs. Students were initially hesitant to transition to online learning due to preconceived ideas and expectations that may have tainted their overall experience. Pharmacy students preferred face-to-face learning due to their sociable personality and heavy dependence on peer and teacher support. All participants reported that they preferred face-to-face learning and acknowledged that fully online programs were not suited to their learning style or to the discipline of pharmacy. After their experience of online learning, participants believed that there was a place for online learning components in pharmacy courses. Lectures and some discussion workshops could be delivered online, but some aspects, such as compounding; dispensing; counselling; and demonstration of medication delivery devices, such as asthma inhalers and injectable diabetes products, should be delivered on campus. Full article

The learning of laboratory skills is essential in science education, but students often get too little individual guidance in this area. Augmented reality (AR) technologies are a promising tool to tackle this challenge and promote students’ high-level learning and performance in science laboratories. Thus, the purpose of this study was (1) to design an AR-assisted learning environment to support individual knowledge construction, (2) to investigate students’ learning processes and learning outcomes and (3) to examine the usability of the system. Pharmacy students (n = 16) were assigned to experimental (n = 10) and control (n = 6) groups and performed the same laboratory work together with pre- and post-tests. The experimental group worked with AR glasses that provided additional support and timely guidance during the work with additional info-screens, questions related to choosing correct reagents and laboratory tools and think-aloud questions, whereas the control group worked in a traditional laboratory context. The results showed that AR was more effective in fostering performance in the science laboratory compared to traditional laboratory instruction and prevented most of the mistakes. The AR group considered the guidance and feedback provided by AR to be beneficial for their learning. However, no apparent differences were found in tasks measuring students’ understanding of the content knowledge. Thus, an AR environment embedded with supportive tools could partly replace the teacher in science teaching laboratories by providing individual and timely guidance for the students. Full article

The overall goal of this study was to employ direct-to-consumer advertisements (DTCAs) as a teaching tool in a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum. The objectives of this pilot study were to investigate the following questions: 1. Do DTCAs generate student curiosity about the advertised drug and associated disease? 2. Can DTCAs help students understand and reinforce various pharmacological aspects of the drug? 3. How do students perceive DTCAs? A DTCA-based teaching tool was employed in a pharmacology course taken by P2 (second professional year) PharmD and final year (U4) Bachelor of Science (BS) in Pharmacology–Toxicology students. A voluntary online survey was administered to students to determine the effectiveness of this tool. Survey data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. 70–85% of responding students indicated that this teaching tool was an effective visual aid for learning pharmacology and correlating the drug to disease state, mechanism of action, and adverse effects. Moreover, themes identified from the qualitative analysis suggest that this teaching tool may be useful to enhance patient counseling skills in students. The initial implementation of this DTCA-based teaching tool proved to be successful, and a similar approach can be easily implemented in other pharmacotherapy and laboratory courses. Further studies are needed to determine if this approach can improve patient counseling skills. Full article

(1) Background: The outbreak of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, forced colleges of pharmacy to implement new online learning methodologies to ensure that students could complete required courses. This transition was especially acute for laboratory simulation courses that require students to practice professional skills. This study aims to compare student assessment performance within a simulation-based laboratory course for students who completed the module prior to and after the online transition. (2) Methods: This study was a retrospective cohort comparison of student outcome performance with two distinct content delivery methods. Students were organized into two tracks at the beginning of the semester to determine the order of the simulation module. The online learning transition occurred in-between the delivery of the same module, which allowed comparison of online versus in-person content delivery with consistent assessment. Remediation rates on each assessment were compared using chi-squared tests. (3) Results: Student pharmacists across the first and second professional year performed similarly despite in-person or online course formats, with no significant differences in remediation rates. (4) Conclusions: Pharmacy course content, including laboratory-based simulation activity, may produce similar assessment performance when using online content delivery. Further research into hybrid or mixed-delivery models may enhance learning without affecting assessment performance. Full article

This paper presents findings from an action-research intervention designed to identify ways of improving antimicrobial stewardship in a Ugandan Regional Referral Hospital. Building on an existing health partnership and extensive action-research on maternal health, it focused on maternal sepsis. Sepsis is one of the main causes of maternal mortality in Uganda and surgical site infection, a major contributing factor. Post-natal wards also consume the largest volume of antibiotics. The findings from the Maternal Sepsis Intervention demonstrate the potential for remarkable changes in health worker behaviour through multi-disciplinary engagement. Nurses and midwives create the connective tissue linking pharmacy, laboratory scientists and junior doctors to support an evidence-based response to prescribing. These multi-disciplinary ‘huddles’ form a necessary, but insufficient, grounding for active clinical pharmacy. The impact on antimicrobial stewardship and maternal mortality and morbidity is ultimately limited by very poor and inconsistent access to antibiotics and supplies. Insufficient and predictable stock-outs undermine behaviour change frustrating health workers’ ability to exercise their knowledge and skill for the benefit of their patients. This escalates healthcare costs and contributes to anti-microbial resistance. Full article

Introduction: In recent decades the role of the Australian community pharmacist has evolved to focus primarily on pharmaceutical care provision. Despite this, compounding remains an important product service offered by pharmacists. The aim of this study was to qualitatively describe the current integration of training in compounding within Bachelor of Pharmacy courses in Australia. Methods: The Australian Health Practitioner Regulatory Agency website was searched to identify eligible university courses. Subsequently, the educational providers’ homepages were consulted, and Bachelor of Pharmacy handbooks and curricula perused. All relevant information regarding training in compounding was extracted. Results: In total, 16 Bachelor of Pharmacy courses were identified. All of these contain compounding training in their curricula, including laboratory classes. Most curricula have units specifically dedicated to compounding and drug formulation. Three universities offer a curriculum which is organ-systems based, and include compounding relevant to the individual organ systems. Discussion and Conclusions: In Australia, the training in compounding is well integrated into pharmacy curriculum and is more emphasised than in many other developed countries. This is congruent with the International Pharmaceutical Federation’s needs-based approach to local pharmacy education. In Australia there is a need for pharmacists to routinely dispense simple compounded products. Further research is required to evaluate Australian pharmacy graduates’ compounding abilities and how best to promote the achievement of the required knowledge and skills to enable simple compounding. Full article

The Japanese pharmaceutical curriculum was extended from four to six years in 2006. Students now receive practical communication-skills training in their fourth year, before progressing to train in hospital and community pharmacies in their fifth year. Kitasato University School of Pharmacy, Tokyo, had established a program to meet these aims before the 2006 guidance. In the present study, we discuss and evaluate the features of this communication-skills training program. This study enrolled 242 fourth-year pharmacy students at Kitasato University. Students filled out a questionnaire survey after completing the laboratory element of their undergraduate education. As part of training, students were asked to obtain patient data from a model medical chart, before performing simulated patient interviews covering hospital admission and patient counseling. These simulations were repeated in a small group, and feedback was provided to students by both the simulated patient and the faculty after each presentation. It was found that students were able to develop their communication skills through this approach. Thus, an effective system of gradual and continuous training has been developed, which allows students to acquire clinical and practical communication skills. Full article