Abstract
The accessibility of pharmacists gives them an important role in health promotion (HP). In England, the role of the health professions in helping maintaining healthy lives has been highlighted by the recent White Paper: “Healthy lives, Healthy People”.[1] In preparing students for practice, it is important to ensure that the setting for their activities is authentic to facilitate the transfer of knowledge to practice.[2] Students in the fourth year of the MPharm programme at Keele undertake a module entitled “Public Health and Health Promotion”. The major assessment in this module is a group task in which they must plan, design and implement a health promotion campaign for a specific local population. The campaign must involve active engagement with the target audience, be underpinned by evidence of health needs and be innovative and engaging. This learning activity is new and innovative at Keele, and therefore it was decided that a detailed exploration of students’ opinions and attitudes would allow the practice based assessment to be fully evaluated. A session was timetabled to provide students with detailed feedback on their group performance in the HP task. The students were then asked for feedback on their opinions and attitudes on undertaking the HP campaign. The students were asked a series of multiple choice questions using Likert scales and simple yes/no answers to explore their opinions and attitudes. The questions investigated the students’ engagement with the activity, the learning they had undertaken, the perceived relevance of the activity to their future practice, and practical issues relating to the organisation of the activity and assessment. TurningPoint® hand sets were used to gather the students’ responses, providing them with anonymity. In addition, they were also given forms on which to provide more detailed comments if they wished. Students were also asked if they were willing for their data to be used for other academic uses, including publications and 100% agreed. As a module evaluation activity, ethics approval was not required. The fourth year cohort comprised a total of 57 students, and 53 of these participated in the feedback session. When asked if they had found the HP campaign enjoyable, 53 (81%) students either strongly agreed or agreed and only 5 students (9%) disagreed. Nearly two thirds (72%, n = 38) felt that the activity helped prepare them for practice. Whilst 51 of the students (96%) enjoyed the team working aspect, the students were divided over the potential use of a peer assessment component for future cohorts undertaking the HP activity; 22 (42%) viewed this positively and 31 (58%) negatively. 67% students (n = 33) would have preferred a smaller group size of 4 or less rather than the groups of 6 in which they worked. The majority of students (72%, 38) felt they had the underpinning knowledge and skills for the HP campaign, and 34 (64%) agreed that it was an appropriate M level activity. Whilst some students valued the freedom of determining the focus of their campaign, others were keen to have greater guidance on potential target areas. The students’ opinions and attitudes suggest that the HP campaign activity provided an appropriate level of challenge for M level pharmacy students. In addition, the use of an assessment undertaken in real life situations provides the students with an opportunity to relate their theory to practice.
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