Quality and applicability of an undergraduate psychopharmacy rotation: a survey of pharmacy students.

ABSTRACT

This paper details the results of a study of an undergraduate psychopharmacy rotation in an inpatient hospital setting and assesses its influence on pharmacy graduates careers in pharmacy. Significant features of the rotation include the students' participation in patient care activities and patient education about medications, as well as presentation of case histories. The students also took medication histories and revised patients' charts with the preceptor. Graduates of this program were sent questionnaires to assess their impressions of the rotation for quality of experience and for applicability to their pharmacy position. Ninety-four percent of the students responding worked as pharmacists and all reported dispensing psychoactive agents. Three-fourths of the respondents gave the program a positive rating for its influence on training in customer/patient relations and communications.