USE OF VARIOUS ACTIVE LEARNING TECHNIQUES AND ASSESSMENTS TO EDUCATE FIRST YEAR PHARMACY STUDENTS

Background: At the University of Colorado Denver School of Pharmacy, self-care topics were previously covered during the 2nd and 3rd didactic year in the Experiential course. Chapters from The Handbook of Non-Prescription Drugs were assigned to the students as readings, and learning was expected to occur through independent study and patient encounters during the experiential community site visits. Based on student feedback and writing preceptors, it was uncertain as to how effective this method was to promote consistent learning among students.

Objective: Incorporate self-care topics into the PSD course using various active learning techniques and assessments as a method to facilitate the consistent development of skills and knowledge of self-care topics and prepare students for pharmacy practice and future experiential courses.

Design: Eleven chapters from The Handbook for Non-Prescription Drugs were used to create question guides to facilitate student self-directed learning to prepare for class. Students had two weeks to complete each guide prior to class. Faculty and education rotation externs wrote cases and role-played as standardized patients during class. The class (129 students) was broken into four large groups (approximately 32 students per large group). As a large group, students interviewed the standardized patient regarding medical history and current complaint, made an assessment, and provided a recommendation that included pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatments. Faculty facilitated discussion to identify and reinforce key clinical teaching points. The following week, students worked in small groups (5-8 students per small group) and interviewed a professional standardized patient trained to facilitate small group discussion. Although the topic was the same, the case for the small group session was more complex. Similar to the large group session, each small group interviewed the patient, made an assessment of the patient’s condition and developed a treatment plan. Each group member then counseled the patient regarding his or her recommendation(s) and received feedback from the standardized patient and peers regarding their clinical and communication skills. In addition, various student facilitated small group activities were used to reinforce key concepts that need to be considered when selecting and counseling on self-care products.

Assessments: A variety of assessments were used to evaluate student retention of knowledge and ability to apply knowledge of self-care topics including Patient Counseling Evaluations, Performance Based Evaluations, Video Clinical Evaluation (VCE) and Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE).

Implications: The incorporation of active learning and a variety of assessment techniques was incorporated to promote learning, application of knowledge and the development of interviewing, listening and effective communication skills of first year students. Although we do not have data to compare knowledge of students who learned nonprescription drugs topics through independent study, the increase in knowledge has been acknowledges by the Experiential competency statement writing preceptors.