Design and Evaluation of a Self-Care Educational Activity as a Student Learning Experience

Objective. To design an educational activity and evaluate its effectiveness on increasing third-year pharmacy students’ knowledge and confidence to recommend self-care products to patients.Design. Faculty members created a self-care activity, the Amazing Self-Care Race, for educational use in a pharmaceutical care laboratory course. Student teams worked competitively to complete 15 stations focused on self-care. A complex, real-world case was presented at each station. Student recommendations were presented to a facilitator. Prior to and following the activity, students were invited to complete an online anonymous survey instrument.Assessment. Eighty-six students completed presurvey and postsurvey instruments to assess their knowledge and perceived confidence to recommend a self-care product to a patient prior to and following participation in the Amazing Self-Care Race. Students demonstrated a significant increase in their ability and confidence to recommend self-care products following the activity (p<0.001).Conclusion. The Amazing Self-Care Race is an effective educational activity that increases student knowledge and confidence in self-care therapeutics. The activity helped students to develop self-care skills, enabled them to learn through doing, encouraged them to synthesize information while making self-care recommendations, and helped them to develop confidence by thinking on their feet

Comparison of Low- and Higher-Fidelity Simulation to Train and Assess Pharmacy Students’ Injection Technique

Objective. To evaluate 2 forms of simulation used to train and assess third-year pharmacy students’ subcutaneous and intramuscular injection techniques.Design. A cross-over comparison was used to evaluate an injection pad vs a patient simulator injection arm to train students in injection administration.Assessment. Students completed a survey instrument rating their proficiency, confidence, and anxiety before and after each form of simulated practice. All students demonstrated competence to administer an injection to a peer after using both forms of simulation. Students’ self-ratings of proficiency and confidence improved and anxiety decreased after practicing injections with both forms of simulation. The only significant difference in performance seen between students who used the 2 types of simulations was in students who first practiced with the injection pad followed by the injection arm.Conclusion. Student ability to administer an injection and their self-perceived levels of confidence, proficiency, and anxiety were not dependent on the type of simulation training used.North Dakota State University Development Foundatio

Use of Simulations to Improve Pharmacy Students’ Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes About Medication Errors and Patient Safety

Objective. To design and evaluate the use of simulations in preparing students to identify and reduce medication errors and promote patient safety.Methods. Third-year pharmacy students used methods of root cause analysis (RCA) to determine the cause of a medication error in three simulated pharmacy settings. Before and after the activity, students completed an anonymous survey. They also completed a modified Healthcare Professionals Patient Safety Assessment instrument to measure changes in their knowledge, skills, and attitudes.Results. Ninety out of 165 students submitted complete data sets for analysis. Students demonstrated significant changes in knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding medication errors. They felt they could find the cause of an error, identify factors leading to an error, and work with a team to prevent error recurrence. They also demonstrated an increase in knowledge about medication-related errors and the root cause analysis process.Conclusion. Students used RCA methods to discover medication errors in three simulated pharmacy settings. Students improved their knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding medication errors through this process

Performance and Perceptions: Evaluation of Pharmacy Students’ Consultation via Telepharmacy

Background: Pharmacy education standards highlight the importance of effective communication skills and the use of technology to provide patient care. As technology evolves, pharmacists have opportunities to communicate in different and broader ways.Objective: The objectives of this study were 3-fold: to evaluate student ability to counsel via telepharmacy, to determine if there is a difference in students’ abilities to counsel face-to-face or via telepharmacy, and to determine students’ perceptions regarding patient consultation via telepharmacy.Methods: Professional pharmacy students completed a pharmaceutical care laboratory activity focused on communication via telepharmacy. Comparisons were made between students’ ability to provide patient consultation via telepharmacy and face-to-face utilizing a faculty-developed rubric. Students also completed a questionnaire on their perception of utilizing telepharmacy technology to provide patient consultation.Results: Eighty-two second-year professional pharmacy students participated in the study. Results showed students are able to successfully provide patient consultation via telepharmacy without prior practice; however, there was a statistically significant difference between students’ ability to counsel face-to-face and via telepharmacy (P < .001). Overall, students were more successful at providing face-to-face consultation than via telepharmacy, and students who were first assessed on their ability to counsel face-to-face perceived a greater difference between telepharmacy and face-to-face consultation (P < .05).Conclusion: Student-perceived differences between the 2 means of consultation and demonstrated a difference in their ability to counsel via telepharmacy and face-to-face. It appears that, when evaluating the need to teach professional pharmacy students how to provide patient consultation via telepharmacy, additional exposure to telepharmacy technology could be beneficial by enhancing student comfort and proficiency

Provision of Medication Therapy Management to University Faculty and Staff Members by Third-year Pharmacy Students

Objective. To develop and implement a medication therapy management (MTM) curriculum and assess students’ skills and attitudes after the provision of MTM services to faculty and staff members.Design. Third-year students enrolled in a pharmaceutical care laboratory course received lectures and participated in MTM activities in preparation for an MTM encounter. Students conduced MTM sessions with university faculty and staff members, providing comprehensive medication review, blood pressure checks, and optional blood glucose and cholesterol (total cholesterol and HDL) screenings.Assessment. A faculty-developed rubric was used to evaluate students’ ability to explain MTM to the participant and address medication-related problems. Students’ responses on pre- and post-encounter survey instruments showed their confidence to provide MTM services, communicate with participants and other health care providers, and provide point-of-care screening services had increased.Conclusion. Incorporating MTM into an existing laboratory course increased students’ confidence and perceived ability to provide MTM services.North Dakota State University Department of Pharmacy Practic

Implementation of a statewide program within community pharmacies to prevent opioid misuse and accidental overdose

Objective: To describe the implementation of a statewide pharmacy program called ONE Rx (Opioid and Naloxone Education) within community pharmacies.Setting: Thirty community pharmacies.Practice description: Community pharmacies throughout the state of North Dakota were invited to participate. Pharmacists in North Dakota can legally prescribe and dispense naloxone.Practice innovation: ONE Rx is a statewide program that provides pharmacists with the education and tools to screen every patient who was prescribed an opioid medication for the risk of opioid misuse and accidental overdose. The goal of ONE Rx is to prevent opioid misuse and accidental overdose through patient screening and individualized education and intervention within the community pharmacy.Evaluation: Outcomes to measure the implementation of ONE Rx included the number of pharmacists and technicians who participated in the training, the number of pharmacies who chose to implement ONE Rx, and the number of patients screened for the risk of opioid misuse and accidental overdose.Results: The ONE Rx training was completed by 240 pharmacists and 41 registered pharmacy technicians. Thirty community pharmacies implemented the program between October 2018 and May 2019, and more than 1700 patients were screened for the risk of opioid misuse and accidental overdose.Conclusion: A statewide program to screen for opioid misuse and accidental overdose was successfully implemented.North Dakota Department of Human ServicesBlue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota Caring FoundationAlex Stern Foundatio