The Danish Network for Community Pharmacy Practice Research and Development

The community pharmacy has a number of attributes that makes it an excellent setting for research and development projects, as it is a highly accessible part of the healthcare system and is staffed by highly trained health care professionals. The big turnover in patients in the community pharmacy makes it possible to reach a great number of patients and collect a lot of data in a relatively short time. However, conducting nation-wide research and development projects can be a rather time-consuming process for the individual community pharmacy, and can thus require collaboration with other community pharmacies and researchers. This will help ensure strong results and better implementation. Thus, the Danish Network for Community Pharmacy Practice for Research and Development (NUAP) was established in Denmark by a number of highly committed community pharmacies and researchers. NUAP consists of 102 member pharmacy owners in addition to a number of researchers. The aim of the network is to strengthen pharmacy practice and pharmacy practice research in Denmark by providing a forum where community pharmacy practitioners and researchers meet and work together. The network is led by a steering committee elected by the members in the network.

SOAP with Self-reflection to Improve Student Confidence regarding Clinical Reasoning Competencies in Community Pharmacy Practice

Objectives: Self-reflection has been shown to foster clinical reasoning competencies (CRC). Thus, the SOAP+, which incorporated self-reflection into the SOAP note, has been implemented in community pharmacy clerkship. The aims of this study was to explore the opinion of pharmacy students regarding 1) the confidence in CRC in community pharmacy practice following the SOAP+ writing and 2) the benefits of reflection in SOAP+ writing. Methods: This was a mixed method study, including a questionnaire survey and focus group discussions of 6th year pharmacy students. The self-rating confidence score before SOAP writing, after SOAP writing, and after reflection writing to complete the SOAP+ were compared using repeated measure ANOVA. The data from the focus group discussions was analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Thirty-seven students completed the questionnaire (68.52% response rate). The scores after reflection writing are the highest score with statistically significant difference for every CRC. The perceived benefits of reflection include promoting of self-directed learning, CRC improvement, and improvement of assessment validity. Conclusions: The student confidence regarding CRC in community pharmacy practice were improved through SOAP+ writing, which promotes self-reflection and learning from student experiences.

Perception of Jordanian Pharmacy Students towards Community Pharmacy-Virtual Training Experience during COVID-19 Outbreak

Background: Nowadays, it is clear for the whole world that the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic had substantial consequences on various sectors including social, economic and education. Pharmacy education includes community pharmacy practice training, and in many schools, it has been shifted to virtual modality utilizing distance learning. This study aims to assess the perception of pharmacy students towards community pharmacy practice virtual training during the COVID-19 period. Methods: Senior pharmacy students were included in this study. Accredited and certified community pharmacy preceptors were asked to simulate the community pharmacy training and record that as videos, which were evaluated and assessed by expert academics before being delivered to students. A validated online questionnaire was then distributed for the students for self-administration through Microsoft teams to evaluate their perception. Results: A convenience sample (n=109) of senior pharmacy students were recruited. The majority of the participants were females (70.6%) and the median age of students was 22.0 years (IQR= 1). Around half of the participants showed positive perceptions towards the virtual training module and the pharmacy training preceptors. A 46.8% of the students benefited from the virtual training in time management and 43.1% in developing lifelong learning skills. The absence of eye contact during the learning was the most important barrier revealed by the students (52.3%). Half of the students agreed/strongly agreed that combining the virtual and conventional techniques for future training would improve training outcomesConclusion: This is the first study assessing perception towards virtual training in Jordan, which was positive among pharmacy students. Such results could spot the light on the value of hybrid education and training (virtual with actual) in the pharmacy field. However, there is a crucial need for well-designed studied modules to comply with the intended learning outcomes.