Comparison of Student Pharmacists’ Knowledge Retention Utilizing Electronic Health Records Versus Simultaneously Completing Simulated Experiences

Abstract

Interprofessional team-based care has become the standard for practicing clinical pharmacists. However, it is difficult to simulate every aspect of this environment in the didactic curriculum. The purpose of this study was to determine if the addition of standardized patients (SP) or interprofessional student teams with SPs, to the use of a simulated electronic health record (EHR) improved student knowledge retention and perceptions. Methods. This was a prospective cohort study assessing three cohorts of first-year student pharmacists in pharmacy skills laboratory activities that occurred in 2018, 2019, and 2021. The primary objective of the study was to compare knowledge retention at 1-month related to the case material between groups. Each year an element of simulated experience was added onto the previous year's case. In 2018, students completed the case using the EHR web application only. In 2019, an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) with SPs was combined with the previous year's experience. In 2021, student physician assistants were added to the 2019 experience. Case scores and student perceptions were also compared between groups.Results. Of the 260 potential participants, 238 students were included in the primary analysis. Significant improvement was demonstrated in one-month knowledge retention assessments with the addition of interprofessional team-based care and SPs. Mean knowledge retention assessment scores were 63.8%, 71.7%, and 76.1% respectively. There was also significant improvement in student perceptions. Conclusion. The addition of SPs and interprofessional team-based care to a pharmacy skills laboratory that utilizes a simulated EHR significantly improved student knowledge retention and perceptions.

Non-virtual simulation training and patient simulation existing for pharmacy students: A scoping review

“…There were a number of validated tools available to measure IPE competencies but they were not systematically used and were sometimes adapted to meet specific simulation needs or the needs of a particular curriculum (MacDonnell et al, 2012;Ottis & Gregory, 2016;Quesnelle et al, 2018;Suematsu et al, 2018;Wen et al, 2019;Egelund et al, 2020). The influence of one profession on another was sometimes difficult to measure due to the use of post-surveys only being performed immediately after the simulation (Gough et al, 2013;Ottis & Gregory, 2016;Smith et al, 2019;Crowl et al, 2021;Bowers et al, 2022). The use of students from different professional programmes has sometimes resulted in participants with differing levels of clinical experience.…”

“…Additionally, there is a need for standardisation of simulation scripts, with equal participation time for each profession during the simulation. Students may also lack knowledge in certain areas, such as tobacco addiction, which can lead to discomfort during simulations (Shrader et al, 2011;Vyas et al, 2012;Bottenberg et al, 2013;Ragucci et al, 2016;Victor-Chmil & Foote, 2016;Iverson et al, 2018;Curley et al, 2019;Frenzel et al, 2019;Schwindt et al, 2019;Clauser et al, 2020;Egelund et al, 2020;Shaikh et al, 2020;Bowers et al, 2022).…”

“…Gaps discovered in education highlighted the need for more robust evaluation measures and standardisation of simulation scripts to improve the quality and effectiveness of interprofessional simulation-based education (Haddad, 2010;Gough et al, 2013;Chen et al, 2015a;Fejzic et al, 2016;Terriff & McKeirnan, 2017;Pawluk et al, 2018;Cobb et al, 2019;Kusnoor et al, 2019;Korayem & Alboghdadly, 2020;Eukel et al, 2021). Transferability (as long-term gains in knowledge and skills and changes in behaviour after a simulation) should, in practice, be assessed (Mesquita et al, 2010;Chen et al, 2011;Chen et al, 2015a;Bowers et al, 2017;Pawluk et al, 2018;Tremblay, 2018;Vyas et al, 2018;Komperda & Lempicki, 2019;Wang et al, 2020;Gülpınar & Özçelikay, 2021;Bowers et al, 2022). However, the fact that assessing emotional intelligence skills can be complicated and even, in some cases, inappropriate should be considered.…”

Preclinical simulation integrated into a nurse practitioner disease management course: Student perceptions and learning outcomes

“…Among pharmacy students, patient care skills improved on sequential patient case studies through the use of SP encounters and feedback (Sherman & Johnson, 2019). Team-based SP encounters have also improved pharmacy students' clinical knowledge retention (Bowers et al, 2022). Among prelicensure nursing students, knowledge retention and confidence increased significantly after participation in a diabetic care simulation, compared with students who participated in didactic content alone (Moxley et al, 2021).…”

“…Among dietetics students, SP-based preclinical simulation has also resulted in improved observational communication scores (Gibson & Davidson, 2016). Although a promising foundation, students are predominately nonnursing, and outcomes are limited to learner self-reports and nonvalidated metrics (Alvarez & Schultz, 2018;Bishop et al, 2021;Bowers et al, 2022;Sherman & Johnson, 2019;Gibson & Davidson, 2016;Moxley et al, 2021;Smith et al, 2022).…”