Mapping Pharmacy Student Learning During Cocurricular Activities to National Standards and Institutional Outcomes.

Objective. To assess pharmacy student learning from co-curricular activities and map this to Accreditation Council of Pharmacy Education (ACPE) standards and the institution's curricular outcomes.Methods. Student representatives of professional organizations at one college of pharmacy were asked to complete a 16-item questionnaire on behalf of their members about each cocurricular activity their organization completed. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the results. Content analysis was conducted on open-ended questions, and resulting codes were mapped to ACPE Standards 2016 and curricular outcomes.Results. The majority (74%) of the 152 unique cocurricular activities reported were designated as community outreach events and an average of 15 (SD=43) student members participated in each activity. The most frequently selected domain by student representatives was "promoted professionalism" for 86% of activities. Upon distilling student representatives' open-ended responses regarding their members' learning, each response was assigned to one or more of 34 codes. The most frequently assigned codes to learning descriptions (36%) were for patient education and counseling.Conclusion. Representatives of student organizations characterized their members' participation in cocurricular activities as opportunities for learning. The results from the content analysis aligned with the quantitative data collected. Cocurricular activities provide opportunities for Doctor of Pharmacy students to enhance their skills, knowledge, and attitudes in both pharmacy practice and personal areas that map to ACPE Standards 2016 and the college's own curricular outcomes.

An Online, Self-directed Pharmacy Bridging Course for Incoming First-Year Students.

Objective. To evaluate the short-term effectiveness of an online bridging course to increase the knowledge of struggling incoming students' in crucial content areas within the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum. Methods. An assessment was administered to all incoming first-year pharmacy students (N=180) during orientation to determine their foundational knowledge in key areas. Students who scored <70% on the assessment (N=137) were instructed to complete a 10-module, online, self-directed bridging course focusing on physiology, biochemistry, math, and medical terminology during the first two weeks of the quarter to prepare them for first-quarter coursework. After completing the bridging course, participants completed the same assessment to determine content knowledge acquisition and retention. At the end of the quarter, the assessment was again administered to all first-year students, regardless of whether they had completed the bridging course. Results. The average assessment score of students who completed the bridging course modules improved significantly (53% vs 76%). All students demonstrated significant improvement in assessment scores between orientation and the end of the quarter; however, bridging course participants achieved a greater increase in assessment scores (53% vs 73%) than nonparticipants (76% vs 81%). Significant relationships were found between assessment scores following completion of the bridging course and pass rates in first-quarter courses. Conclusion. The online, self-directed bridging course offered at Midwestern University, Chicago College of Pharmacy proved successful as a method of knowledge acquisition and as a system for early identification (within the first two weeks of the quarter) of students in need of additional academic support.

Designing a Professional Development Course Sequence to Address Standard 4 Elements Using a CPD Framework.

ACPE defines personal and professional development as an expected outcome of the Doctor of Pharmacy degree program, but there is scarce data in the literature discussing methods for systematically addressing these concepts in curricula. This paper describes the development and attributes of a four-year professional development course sequence within a college of pharmacy designed to develop students' knowledge, skills, abilities, behaviors, and attitudes necessary to demonstrate self-awareness, leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship, and professionalism through their life-long career. Each course has at least one required activity addressing each of the four elements of Standard 4. The continuous professional development framework is used as a backbone to the course sequence structure, utilizing the four elements of CPD-reflect, plan, act, evaluate.

Do fourth year pharmacy students use Facebook to form workplace-based learning peer groups during rotations?

INTRODUCTION: The objective of this study was to gain an understanding of whether pharmacy students are using Facebook® to create formal or informal workplace-based peer groups to learn from each other and share information while completing their advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs). METHODS: Fourth-year pharmacy students from two colleges of pharmacy in the same geographical area were recruited by email to participate. Inclusion criteria were: completion of two or more APPEs, current assignment to an APPE rotation in the local area, and a Facebook® profile. Two focus groups, of eight students each were conducted on each of the two colleges' campuses. An incentive to participate was provided. Thematic analysis was used to analyze responses. RESULTS: Students reported using Facebook® to learn about rotation expectations, roles/responsibilities, and preceptors. However, frequency and depth of interactions varied among the participants. Most participants noted that they prefer more private methods of communication to learn about APPE experiences. Students found Facebook® to be a good source of motivation and support during experiential learning. DISCUSSION: The use of social media sites like Facebook® may help students form "virtual" workplace-based peer groups during APPEs. CONCLUSION: Pharmacy schools interested in providing support for formal workplace-based learning groups should consider using social media sites as one component of this program.

Examining Health Care Students' Attitudes toward E-Professionalism.

Objective. To compare pharmacy, osteopathic medicine, dental medicine, and physician assistant (PA) students' perceptions of e-professionalism. Methods. A 20-item questionnaire was developed and administered to four cohorts of health care professions students early in their first professional year. The questionnaire contained 16 scenarios in which a hypothetical health care student or professional shared information or content electronically and students were asked to indicate how much they agreed that the scenario represented professional behavior. Results. Ninety-four percent of students completed the questionnaire. More female students were in the pharmacy and PA cohorts. There were statistical differences in students' perceptions of e-professionalism in five of 16 scenarios. Specific differences were most often between the osteopathic medicine students and the other cohorts. Conclusions. The health care professions students surveyed had similar perceptions of e-professionalism. Of the four cohorts, osteopathic medicine students appeared less conservative in their approach to e-professionalism than the other cohorts.

Evaluation of the impact of a continuing professional development worksheet on sustained learning and implementing change after a continuing pharmacy education activity.

BACKGROUND: Continuing professional development (CPD) continues to gain acceptance as a model for health care professionals to engage in lifelong learning. Little is known about how CPD participants use the experience to develop learning plans and implement new knowledge into practice. OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of instruments designed to guide the pharmacist through a CPD process to plan and participate in continuing professional education activities at a national meeting. METHODS: The study was a case-control study of pharmacists randomized from the participants of the 2010 American Pharmacists Association Annual Meeting. The test group (n=47) was instructed to complete CPD planning worksheets designed to facilitate planning of their continuing pharmacy education activities before the meeting. The control group (n=58) did not have instructions beyond the meeting program. Both groups completed 3 surveys assessing components of the CPD processes: 1 before and 2 after the meeting. The surveys focused on confidence in abilities to identify, plan, and evaluate learning as well as implementation of practice change. RESULTS: Nearly all the test groups reported successful application of learning (95%) and achieving their designed learning plan (87%). Practice changes were implemented in more than half (60%) of the test groups after using a CPD process to plan their learning activities. There were no significant differences among groups regarding the outcome measures. CONCLUSIONS: Participants successfully used a CPD approach to meet their learning plans and achieve meaningful learning outcomes. Integration of CPD components into educational activities may help to promote practice change.

Student and faculty observations and perceptions of professionalism in online domain scenarios.

OBJECTIVES: To relate common online scenarios to tenets of professionalism, assess frequency of observed scenarios in 4 online domains, and compare second-year (P2) pharmacy students, fourth-year (P4) pharmacy students', and faculty members' perceptions of professionalism. METHODS: A 63-item survey instrument consisting of scenarios of behavior in online domains was developed. Using a Likert scale, participants reported whether they had observed each scenario and whether each scenario was professional. RESULTS: Of the 296 participants who completed the survey instrument, 53% were P2 students, 49% were P4 students, and 68% were faculty members. Most of the observed scenario responses were for social networking sites. There were statistical differences among the 3 cohorts' perception over whether a scenario demonstrated professional behavior in 6 of the 10 most frequently observed scenarios, and 4 out of 6 of these scenarios were in the social networking domain. CONCLUSION: Second-year pharmacy students and faculty members were more in alignment with their perception of professionalism then P4 students, suggesting that P4 students may be more complacent in their perception of professionalism.

Critical thinking and reflection exercises in a biochemistry course to improve prospective health professions students' attitudes toward physician-pharmacist collaboration.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the impact of performing critical-thinking and reflection assignments within interdisciplinary learning teams in a biochemistry course on pharmacy students' and prospective health professions students' collaboration scores. DESIGN: Pharmacy students and prospective medical, dental, and other health professions students enrolled in a sequence of 2 required biochemistry courses. They were randomly assigned to interdisciplinary learning teams in which they were required to complete case assignments, thinking and reflection exercises, and a team service-learning project. ASSESSMENT: Students were asked to complete the Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration prior to the first course, following the first course, and following the second course. The physician-pharmacist collaboration scores of prospective health professions students increased significantly (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Having prospective health professions students work in teams with pharmacy students to think and reflect in and outside the classroom improves their attitudes toward physician-pharmacist collaboration.

Pharmacy practice department chairs' perspectives on part-time faculty members.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the benefits and consequences of having part-time faculty members in departments of pharmacy practice from the department chair's perspective. METHODS: A stratified purposive sample of 12 pharmacy practice department chairs was selected. Eleven telephone interviews were conducted. Two investigators independently read interview notes and categorized and enumerated responses to determine major themes using content analysis. The investigators jointly reviewed the data and came to consensus on major themes. RESULTS: Benefits of allowing full-time faculty members to reduce their position to part-time included faculty retention and improved individual faculty work/life balance. Consequences of allowing part-time faculty positions included the challenges of managing individual and departmental workloads, the risk of marginalizing part-time faculty members, and the challenges of promotion and tenure issues. All requests to switch to part-time status were faculty-driven and most were approved. CONCLUSIONS: There are a variety of benefits and consequences of having part-time faculty in pharmacy practice departments from the chair's perspective. Clear faculty and departmental expectations of part-time faculty members need to be established to ensure optimal success of this working arrangement.

Impact of a workshop about aging on the empathy scores of pharmacy and medical students.

OBJECTIVE: To measure changes in pharmacy and medical students' empathy scores after a 40-minute workshop during which students observed and discussed a theatrical performance about the challenges of aging. METHODS: First-year pharmacy and medical students (n = 187 and n = 183, respectively) participating in the workshop observed and discussed a 10-minute performance in which students enacted problems and concerns faced by elderly patients. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) was administered just prior to the workshop (pretest), immediately afterward (posttest 1), and 7 or 26 days afterward (posttest 2). RESULTS: Empathy increased significantly from pretest to posttest 1 for students of each profession (p <0.01). Improvement in empathy scores declined by the time the JSE was readministered to pharmacy students 7 days later and to medical students 26 days later (posttest 2). Similar patterns of improved and declining empathy were found when the data were analyzed by gender and medical student specialty interest (ie, primary vs non-primary care specialties). CONCLUSION: Empathy scores increased but were not sustained for both pharmacy and medical students after a brief workshop on aging that required limited personnel resources.

Interprofessional workshop to improve mutual understanding between pharmacy and medical students.

OBJECTIVE: To measure changes in pharmacy and medical students' physician-pharmacist collaboration scores resulting from a workshop designed to promote understanding of the others' roles in health care. METHODS: More than 88% of first-year pharmacy (n = 215) and medical (n = 205) students completed the Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration on 3 occasions in order to establish a baseline of median scores and to determine whether the scores were influenced by an interprofessional workshop. RESULTS: Participation in the interprofessional workshop increased pharmacy students' collaboration scores above baseline (p=0.02) and raised the scores of medical students on the education component of the collaboration survey instrument (p=0.015). The collaboration scores of pharmacy students greatly exceeded those of medical students (p<0.0001). CONCLUSION: A workshop designed to foster interprofessional understanding between pharmacy and medical students raised the physician-pharmacist collaboration scores of both. Crucial practical goals for the future include raising the collaboration scores of medical students to those of pharmacy students.

Measuring empathy in pharmacy students.

OBJECTIVE: To validate the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Profession Students version (JSE-HPS) in pharmacy students. METHODS: The JSE-HPS (20 items), adapted from the original Jefferson Scale of Empathy for use among students in the healthcare professions, was completed by 187 first-year pharmacy students at Midwestern University Chicago College of Pharmacy. RESULTS: Two factors, "perspective-taking" and "compassionate care," emerged from factor analysis in this study, accounting for 31% and 8% of the variance, respectively. These factors are similar to the prominent ones reported in previous research involving physicians and medical students, supporting the construct validity of this instrument for pharmacy students. In the current study, mean JSE-HPS score was comparable to those reported for medical students, and consistent with previous findings with medical students and physicians. Women scored significantly higher than men. CONCLUSIONS: Findings support the construct validity and reliability of the JSE-HPS for measuring empathy in pharmacy students.