The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted pharmacy education and caused significant transformation in student learning and assessment. Pharmacy PA faculty transformed the traditional PA teaching and practicum to virtual utilising Zoom. PA practicum consists of demonstration of a set of short videos, followed by students identifying incorrect techniques, describing the correct technique, and the purpose of the specific PA skill. After completion of the virtual PA practicum examination, students were invited to complete a 20-item survey about their perceptions. Most students preferred blended learning (56.8%) format over in-class, even though students performed significantly better on the traditional practicum (0.89+0.13) rather than the virtual (0.84+0.11). Hands-on skills are an integral part to PA instruction and learning, making innovations in virtual delivery and assessment vital for student success. This pandemic gave opportunities to explore curricular innovations as our virtual formats provided alternative approaches to review and summative assessment of PA.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.