Assessing student pharmacists' ability to recognize and categorize interventions during an introductory pharmacy practice experience.

INTRODUCTION

Introductory pharmacy practice experiences (IPPEs) prepare students for advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) by reinforcing patient care skills learned in the didactic curriculum. Current literature does not assess pharmacy students' abilities to accurately recognize and categorize interventions in IPPEs or APPEs. This study evaluated the impact of incorporating paper-based simulated encounters and video answer keys to train students to accurately recognize and categorize interventions during an IPPE.

METHODS

During longitudinal IPPEs, first-, second-, and third-year students reviewed four patient case scenarios that mimicked authentic patient encounters. Students were tasked with recognizing and categorizing interventions and were provided answer key videos after each assignment. Total scores for the proportion of correct and incorrect intervention options selected were calculated and compared over time. Students and faculty mentors completed post-study questionnaires designed to assess perceived improvement in students' capability to recognize and categorize interventions.

RESULTS

A series of repeated measures analyses of variance were statistically significant (P < .05) for total scores and proportion of correctly selected and incorrectly selected intervention options. Students' accuracy to correctly recognize and categorize interventions improved by 8% over four case scenarios. The proportion of correctly selected interventions increased by 65%, and the proportion of incorrectly selected intervention options decreased by 49% based on mean percent scores.

CONCLUSIONS

Patient case scenario assignments and video recorded answer keys were useful tools to teach students how to document interventions. Exposure to documenting interventions during IPPEs helps prepare students for documenting interventions during APPEs.