Health Promotion Integrated Into a Thai PharmD Curriculum to Improve Pharmacy Practice Skills

Abstract

Objective. To implement and evaluate 5 integrated teaching modules in the fifth-year doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum to increase students' ability to promote patients' health as part of their pharmacy practice. Design. Activity-based learning was added to each module: (1) a practice experience in which students provided health information and counseling to the public; (2) academic debates on current issues in pharmacy (3) journal clubs on articles from the pharmacy literature; and (4) research projects relating to ongoing faculty research on diabetes. Students on 12-week practice experiences had visits to patients in inpatient wards, outpatient clinics, and either primary care units or community pharmacies. Assessment. Practice examinations at the end of the first semester, the average student score was above 80% as determined by preceptors in experience sites and from faculty members. Group interviews found that students were positive about the benefits of integrated teaching. Conclusion. The integration of the teaching between modules in the same semester is possible and greatly benefits student learning.Keywords: active learning, pharmacy practice, pharmacy practice experience, PharmD curriculum, health promotion, Thailand INTRODUCTIONOnly 6 of the 15 universities with pharmacy programs in Thailand offer the 6-year PharmD curriculum.1-6 The standard requirements for the PharmD curriculum has/ have been published by the Ministry of Education. 7 The Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahasarakham University, was the second university in Thailand to establish the 6-year PharmD program. We accepted our first students into the program in 2000. The current PharmD curriculum requires 240 credits including 30 credits in general education, 30 credits in basic sciences, 87 credits in professional health sciences, 65 credits in clinical pharmacy, 18 credits in research, and 10 credits in elective subjects. The curriculum includes lecturing and active learning in the first through fifth years, and practice skills in hospitals and community pharmacies in the second through sixth years (year 2 5 48 hours, year 3 5 80 hours, year 4 5 400 hours, summer of year 5 5 150 hours, and year 6 5 5 practice experiences of 225 hours each. 1Teaching of pharmacy modules in Thailand is generally delivered independently for each specialty. Students have been taught many different modules without any strategy to help them conceptually apply their knowledge to promote people's health in their pharmacy practice. Since health promotion is an important issue throughout Thailand, the Pharmacy Network for Health Promotion (PNHP) in 2004, led by Associate Professor Dr. Jiraporn Limpananont, introduced the idea of health promotion being included in the Thai pharmacy curriculum of all 15 universities offering a pharmacy degree. 8 The aim of the PNHP was for pharmacy students to become pharmacists who were up-to-date in global health matters and who could play a role in the rational use of medicines and health promotion.8 Competence in health promotion is ...

Communications Training in Pharmacy Education, 1995-2010

“…Interpersonal communications skills are often targeted alongside either clinical writing skills 12,16,30,71 or presentation skills. 13,23,35 Reflective writing exercises can be used as a follow-up component for most other interventions, 18,28 to promote student selfassessment 51 and reinforce general writing skills. As an example, simulated or standardized patient interactions seem to be a common tool for teaching communication skills.…”

“…One study involved writing a script modeling different communication styles used when talking to a physician over the phone, 39 another involved acting out a conversation with fellow students using improvisation to improve interprofessional conversational skills, 11 while others involved engaging in telephone communication with an actual prescriber. 22,35,50 General interpersonal communications skills are those not directed at a specific type of interaction, but which can be used in all forms of conversation. General interpersonal communication training topics included cultural competency, 59 transactional analysis and personality assessment, 37 emotional intelligence, 60 and self-concept/self-confidence.…”

“…26 Seminars differ from lectures in that they typically involve more discussion and interaction between the speaker and students. A seminar may be standalone, delivered in a workshop-type format 13,14,30 ; secondary to a lecture-dominated course (individual 27,34 or series 11,31,35 ); or the entire basis of a course. 32,33 The majority of seminar activities described in the studies in this review were secondary to or connected to a communications course.…”

A Team Public Health Research Project for First-Year Pharmacy Students to Apply Content From Didactic Courses

“…Further, few schools have incorporated the research concepts and instruction of institutional review boards (IRBs) into the curriculum. 3,4 We hoped that adding this project to the first didactic semester of the curriculum would help convey the value of concepts typically less appealing to students since they traditionally focus less on drug therapy, disease management, or pharmacology. We thought early integration of a longitudinal capstone project might help students acclimate to the demands of the pharmacy program, stimulate socialization through peer-communication and collaboration, and demonstrate pharmacists' roles as public health educators and researchers.…”

“…3,4 All of these relied heavily on the students having successfully completed prior therapeutics modules and most were not offered until the end of the students' didactic education. Other projects involved healthcare system scenarios challenging students to work on formulary decision-making, mock pharmacy and therapeutics committee issues, or public health-related presentations.…”