Evaluating the effectiveness of flowcharts as an instructional method in a therapeutics course for pharmacy students

The article concerns the approaches to creating learning environment and methods of teaching to develop foreign language communicative skills in pharmacists in the face of changing qualification requirements for a specialist.

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Stress level comparison between pharmacy students and non-pharmacy students in Indonesia

International Journal of Pharmaceutical Research ◽

10.31838/ijpr/2020.12.03.039 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (03) ◽

Keyword(s):

Stress Level ◽

Pharmacy Students

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Inter-rater Reliability of Preceptors on Clinical Pharmacy Competency Evaluation

Current Drug Therapy ◽

10.2174/1574885515999201209202624 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Dixon Thomas ◽

Sherief Khalifa ◽

Jayadevan Sreedharan ◽

Rucha Bond

Keyword(s):

United Arab Emirates ◽

Clinical Pharmacy ◽

Clinical Competence ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Clinical Skills ◽

Group Discussion ◽

Pharmacy Students ◽

Rater Reliability ◽

Quasi Experimental ◽

Competency Evaluation

Background:: Clinical competence of pharmacy students is better evaluated at their practice sites. compared to the classroom. A clinical pharmacy competency evaluation rubric like that of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP)is an effective assessment tool for clinical skills and can be used to show item reliability. The preceptors should be trained on how to use the rubrics as many inherent factors could influence inter-rater reliability. Objective:: To evaluate inter-rater reliability among preceptors on evaluating clinical competence of pharmacy students, before and after a group discussion intervention. Methods:: In this quasi experimental study in a United Arab Emirates teaching hospital, Seven clinical pharmacy preceptors rated clinical pharmacy competencies of ten recent PharmD graduates referring to their portfolios and preceptorship. Clinical pharmacy competencies were adopted from ACCP and mildly modified to be relevant for the local settings. Results:: Inter-rater reliability (Cronbach's Alpha) among preceptors was reasonable being practitioners at a single site for 2-4 years. At domain level, inter-rater reliability ranged from 0.79 - 0.93 before intervention and 0.94 - 0.99 after intervention. No inter-rater reliability was observed in relation to certain competency elements ranging from 0.31 – 0.61 before intervention, but improved to 0.79 – 0.97 after intervention. Intra-class correlation coefficient improved among all individual preceptors being reliable with each other after group discussion though some had no reliability with each other before group discussion. Conclusion:: Group discussion among preceptors at the training site was found to be effective in improving inter-rater reliability on all elements of the clinical pharmacy competency evaluation. Removing a preceptor from analysis did not affect inter-rater reliability after group discussion.

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Understanding and promoting students’ well-being and performance in university studies – effects of a 7-week Acceptance and Commitment Therapy based course (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.13405 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Henna Asikainen ◽

Nina Katajavuori ◽

Kirsikka Kaipainen

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

University Students ◽

Acceptance And Commitment Therapy ◽

Well Being ◽

Pharmacy Students ◽

Reflective Journal ◽

Reflective Journals ◽

Commitment Therapy ◽

Acceptance And Commitment ◽

And Performance

BACKGROUND Internationally there have been many studies showing that the number of university students suffering from mental illness is growing and this problem should be addressed OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to examine 41 pharmacy students’ experiences of a small Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) -based intervention that was implemented as a 7-week course with weekly online modules. METHODS Students’ well-being, experiences of stress, organised studying and psychological flexibility were measured with questionnaires at the beginning and end of the course. Students’ experiences of the effectiveness of the course and were analysed from open-ended responses and a reflective journal. RESULTS The results show that students’ well-being and ability to manage time and effort increased during the course(p≤0.003). In their reflective journals, students described how their ability to manage stress in their studies, cope with their thoughts and feelings, focus on the things that are more important to them, and manage their time in studying and their well-being had improved. CONCLUSIONS This study showed that it is possible to foster students’ well-being in their studies. More research is needed to identify the long-lasting effects of these kind of interventions.

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