Video Review in Self-Assessment of Pharmacy Students’ Communication Skills

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to develop a student self-assessment activity of a video-recorded counseling session and evaluate its impact on student self-perceptions of specific communication skills. This activity was incorporated into a core-communications course within the third professional year of a Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum. Student counseling sessions were video-recorded and released to students for self-assessment review. After watching their recorded counseling sessions, students completed an eight-question, paper-based survey which evaluated the impact of self-assessment on communication skill perceptions. Most students (95.6%) agreed or strongly agreed that their self-assessment process was valuable in developing their communication skills. The greatest change in assessment was associated with the use of eye contact (49.5%). Approximately 40% of students noted changes in perceptions for appropriate rate of speech (42.1%), voice volume (39.8%), and facial expressions (37.2%). Overall, self-assessment of video-recorded counseling sessions impacted students' perceptions of both verbal and non-verbal communication skills.

Learner Perceptions of a Video Recording Activity for Patient Consultation Training in a Pharmacist-Led Primary Care Clinic Located in an Academic Institution

“…2 Pharmacy programs routinely utilize video-recorded peer and standardized patient consultation activities for interviewing and communication skills training. 3 Many of these activities are shown to be effective, particularly when integrating both self-assessment and preceptor assessment during activities such as medication counselling. 4,5 Although they are helpful for preparing students to perform patient consultations in community and hospital settings, there are limitations in the application to primary care practice, where consultations tend to be longer in duration, complex medication related issues of differing levels of acuity exist, and numerous follow-up Corresponding author: Jamie Yuen, BSc(Pharm) Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences The University of British Columbia 2405 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z3 Phone: 1 (604) 827-0704; Email: jamieh.yuen@ubc.ca appointments are often required.…”

“…This differs from most literature which mainly consists of learners counselling standardized or simulated patients in a learning environment, often restricted to much less than 60-minutes. 3,8 In this practice setting, there is a variable amount information known about the patient prior to the initial consultation depending on referral notes and provincial prescription records and therefore, learners are tasked with gathering pertinent information and providing recommendations by the end of the encounter. They must also build rapport and trust with patients over a 60-minute appointment when assessing complex chronic conditions, in contrast to brief routine medication counselling scenarios that is described in much of the literature.…”

“…An anonymous online feedback survey, created based on available literature, regarding the value of the learning activity was placed on Qualtrics TM survey tool (Qualtrics, Drive Provo, Utah, US) hosted on UBC's server, which the learners responded to within 48 hours following completion of the learning activity. [3][4][5] This included both Likert-style questions (Table 1) and three open-ended questions assessing areas of the activity that were difficult, beneficial to learning and not beneficial to learning. Content analysis of open-ended text responses was performed by two coders (HB, NM) independently to determine themes, after which the team (all authors) discussed the findings and agreed on the themes.…”

Self-Reflection and Peer-Assessments Effect on Pharmacy Students’ Performance at Simulated Counselling Sessions

“…Simulation is one approach that that is widely used in pharmacy education for teaching patient counselling skills. A range of simulation methods have been used to teach patient counselling skills, including role-play with simulated patients or actors [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ], peers [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ], and faculty members [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ], video recording of simulated communication [ 15 , 16 , 21 , 22 ], high-fidelity simulation [ 23 , 24 ], and mystery shoppers [ 25 ]. However, the most appropriate method, how this is used and the mechanism by which it achieves its effects depends on the stage of the student’s learning trajectory [ 26 ].…”