University of Utah College of Pharmacy, 30 S 2000 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, United States.
Division of Physician Assistant Studies, 375 Chipeta Wat Ste A, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, United States.
Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2023 Sep;15(9):843-847. doi: 10.1016/j.cptl.2023.07.016. Epub 2023 Aug 3.
While the scope of a pharmacist's work has grown, continued advocacy is needed to ensure that their skillset is used to the best advantage of the patient. To accomplish this aim, the University of Utah College of Pharmacy created an elective advocacy and leadership class to train students in leadership and advocacy methods, with a focus on enabling students to practice advocacy within the state of Utah throughout the class.
In addition to traditional lectures, this class asked students to apply the knowledge learned in class to projects within their sphere of influence. Activities included drafting their own bill, writing to a legislator, attending state legislative and board of pharmacy meetings, and a longitudinal quality improvement project. Students answered a pre- and post-class survey to assess their attitudes towards advocacy efforts and how those attitudes were affected by participation in the class.
As expected, a positive change in attitude towards advocacy was observed, and students indicated that they were more likely to engage in advocacy activities in the future after participating in the course. Moreover, a real legislative outcome has been observed as the result of class projects.
Enabling students to engage in advocacy activities and guiding them to effect real change is a valuable technique in pharmacy education. Similar efforts can be replicated in other institutions, and similar training should be expanded to required portions of the pharmacy curriculum.
尽管药剂师的工作范围已经扩大，但仍需要继续倡导，以确保他们的技能能够最大限度地为患者服务。为了实现这一目标，犹他大学药学院开设了一门选修的倡导和领导力课程，旨在培养学生的领导力和倡导方法，重点是使学生在整个课程中能够在犹他州实践倡导。
除了传统的讲座外，本课程还要求学生将课堂上所学的知识应用于他们影响力范围内的项目中。活动包括起草自己的法案、给立法者写信、参加州立法和药剂师委员会会议，以及一个纵向的质量改进项目。学生们在课前和课后回答了一份调查，以评估他们对倡导工作的态度，以及这些态度如何受到课程参与的影响。
正如预期的那样，观察到对倡导的态度有了积极的变化，学生们表示，在参加课程后，他们更有可能将来参与倡导活动。此外，课程项目还产生了一个真正的立法成果。
使学生能够参与倡导活动并引导他们实现真正的变革，这是药学教育中的一项有价值的技术。类似的努力可以在其他机构中复制，类似的培训应该扩展到药学课程的必修部分。
