Video-based learning can improve the understanding of pharmacists’ contributions during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional survey of pharmacy students in Japan

ABSTRACT

Backgound It has been challenging to conduct university education in face-to-face and large group settings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, there is a pressing need for online educational videos. Objective: To create educational videos to highlight community pharmacists’ efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan and investigate pharmacy students’ awareness of community pharmacists’ efforts. Methods: To assess the importance of five educational videos, we conducted a cross-sectional survey. In July 2020, first-year pharmacy students (n = 120) were invited to watch these educational videos, which dealt with infection control measures for COVID-19 in pharmacies and the questions received from patients on COVID-19. Subsequently, the students were asked to respond to a questionnaire to assess the impact of the videos on them. Results: Seventy percent of the students revealed that after watching the videos, they, for the first time, realized the contributions of community pharmacists toward healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the students reported that their image of the pharmacist profession changed to “a familiar medical professional who is close to patients.” Furthermore, 102 of the participants (85%) were satisfied with the videos and more than 60% said they gave them confidence for their future studies. Conclusions: Creating these five educational videos provided the first-year pharmacy students with an improved understanding of the role played by pharmacists in public health. Through the videos, the role of pharmacists during the COVID-19 pandemic was particularly highlighted. This helped students feel closer to pharmacists, whose role is rarely reported in the media. Moreover, their future goal of becoming a pharmacist was concretized. (AU)