Pharmacy Technician Students Research Articles

An interprofessional view of emotional intelligence: pharmacy and pharmacy technician students’ sample

An interprofessional view of emotional intelligence: pharmacy and pharmacy technician students’ sample

Abstracts 13th PCNE Working Conference “Pharmacies' new roles in pharmaceutical care: bridging research and practice”

Abstracts 13th PCNE Working Conference “Pharmacies' new roles in pharmaceutical care: bridging research and practice”

Perceptions of pharmacy technician students of the CARD (Comfort Ask Relax Distract) e-module introduced as part of vaccine injection training.

The scope of practice for pharmacy technicians is expanding to include vaccine administration in some provinces. Vaccine training courses and programs currently do not include education about mitigating immunization stress-related responses (ISRR) and improving the vaccination experience. We obtained feedback from pharmacy technician students about a new e-module that addresses this identified knowledge gap, whereby learners are educated about CARD (Comfort Ask Relax Distract), a vaccine delivery framework that reduces ISRR and improves the vaccination experience. Mixed-methods design including second-year pharmacy technician students who elected to take an accredited vaccine injection training program. Students were given access to the CARD e-module after completing mandatory vaccine education components. Eight students answered a quantitative survey and 4 (50%) additionally participated in a focus group. Qualitative data were analyzed deductively using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). The study was conducted between April 28 and June 12, 2022. Students reported positive attitudes about the CARD e-module across quantitative and qualitative measures. Qualitative feedback spanned 4 CFIR constructs: intervention characteristics, outer setting, inner setting and individual characteristics. Students reported the e-module was well designed and that the content was relevant. They believed CARD facilitated provision of vaccinations using a person-centred approach that promotes vaccination. They felt that CARD could potentially add time to the vaccination appointment and that it would need to be acceptable to pharmacy leaders because of implications for training and vaccination delivery. They suggested that CARD education should be mandatory. CARD improved their confidence in delivering vaccinations, and they planned to integrate CARD into their practice. The CARD e-module was well received by pharmacy technician students when coupled with usual vaccine injection training.

Mapping of Danish Pharmacy Technician Students' Third-Year Projects in a Year with the COVID-19 Pandemic.

To graduate, pharmacy technician students write a project in their third year. They choose between six elective courses, and work with a subject related to their education and everyday practice at community or hospital pharmacies. In this article, we report the mapping of third-year project themes and provide an overview of the challenges that COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have had on completing the projects. On the basis of all project titles, a list of themes was generated and described before all projects were allocated to one of the themes. Challenges experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic were investigated from an analytical workshop where supervisors discussed their experience with supervising students throughout the completion of the projects. In total, 140 projects were included and thematised into eight themes: advanced pharmacy services, digital patient support, organisation and collaboration, handling of medicine, automated dose dispensing, medication counselling in community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, and others, covering all six elective courses. The COVID-19 pandemic affected students’ possibilities to collect data from either physical interviews or observations. The challenges prompted both constructive and creative discussions between students and supervisors to find ways to complete the projects, and required flexibility from all those involved: students, supervisors, community pharmacies, and hospital pharmacies. In conclusion, all students managed to complete their third-year project at a similar level of achievement statistically compared to average grades for the previous six years (2016–2020).

Teamwork and managing conflict: A pharmacy and technician student intraprofessional workshop

Background and purposeIntraprofessional education of pharmacy team members before entering practice may support future teamwork. The purposes of the paper are to describe (1) content and instructional methods of a workshop emphasizing roles, teamwork, and conflict resolution for pharmacy and pharmacy technician students and (2) evaluation of the workshop. Educational activity and settingInstructional components included pre-workshop didactic learning, a pre-workshop exercise, and a three-hour in person workshop. The workshop was evaluated by collecting student perceptions of how the workshop affected their understanding and confidence in managing conflict (feedback survey), students' reported key learnings (post-workshop written reflections), and informal debriefing comments from faculty/facilitators. FindingsNinety-three pharmacy and 29 technician students participated. Forty-two students (34%) completed the survey, with respondents reporting a better understanding of conflict management (73.8%). However, fewer respondents (58.5%) felt more confident recognizing and managing conflict in the workplace. Respondents indicated the use of role play scripts was helpful to illustrate conflict that may occur in pharmacy practice. In written reflections, students reported a clearer understanding and appreciation of respective roles and differences in conflict management styles and recognized the need for open communication by team members. Suggestions for improvement included a more balanced discussion of pharmacist and technician scope and roles. SummaryStudents reported a better understanding of conflict management, an appreciation of variation in conflict management styles, and the need for open communication by team members in the workplace as a result of this interprofessional workshop.

Using Real-Life Data to Strengthen the Education of Pharmacy Technician Students: From Student to Research Assistant.

This commentary is based on the experience of teaching and observations of how pharmacy technician students can expand their perspective on patient safety by using real-life student-gathered patient data collected from community pharmacies. Pharmacy technicians in Denmark work extensively with counselling on the safe and efficient use of medications. Final-year pharmacy technician students can take the elective course in Clinical Pharmacy in Community Pharmacy, which targets the students who wish to work in depth with patient communication and quality assurance in counselling. One assignment that forms part of the course is for students to collect data about patients’ beliefs about medications. Teachers’ observations suggest that when students gather and work with their own data, they change their perspective on patients’ beliefs about medications. It also strengthens the students’ awareness of their responsibility for ensuring patient safety and contributes valid data to research in pharmacy practice.

Partners in pharmacy: An intraprofessional educational event with pharmacy and pharmacy technician students

Background and purposeUpon graduation and licensing, pharmacists work very closely with pharmacy technicians. Despite this, opportunities for learning together as students are limited. We developed and implemented a pilot intraprofessional event for pharmacy and pharmacy technician students. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perceived value and learner confidence through analysis of participant feedback. Education activity and settingPharmacy students from the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy and pharmacy technician students from Lambton College participated in an intraprofessional event that included a three-station practice objective structured clinical exam (OSCE) and a case discussion regarding a methadone dispensing error, followed by a facilitated debrief. Upon completion of the event, students were invited to complete an online feedback questionnaire. FindingsTwenty-one pharmacy students and 22 pharmacy technician students participated in the event. Twenty-one students completed the questionnaire, for a response rate of 49%. The majority of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the event enhanced learning and confidence in working together to provide interprofessional care. Students seemed to find the OSCE to be particularly valuable. Feedback suggestions for improvement indicated a desire for more activities and time allocated to the event. SummaryWe designed and implemented a pilot intraprofessional event that was well-received by pharmacy students and pharmacy technician students. This supports the development of future similar events.

National Analysis of Network Drug Information Centers: Education, Training and related Cost at Ministry of Health Hospitals in Saudi Arabia

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objectives:</strong> To explore analysis of network Drug Information Education and training services with the related cost at Ministry of Health (MOH) institutions. <strong>Methods:</strong> This is a simulation of a 2-months crosssectional survey of all drug information centers at MOH Hospitals. Any drug opened and provided services to health care professionals and the public participated in the questionnaire. All type of drug information centers national, regional or local at healthcare institutions including in the survey. All type of hospitals or primary care centers included in the survey (public, pediatric, maternity, psychiatry) included in the study. The survey consisted of two part. Demographics data and questions about education and training activity of drug information centers. It included education and training programs and activities for pharmacy staff and healthcare professional and training services for pharmacy student, pharmacy technician students and pharmacy residency programs with related cost analysis. All analysis done by using an electronic Survey Monkey system.<strong> Results:</strong> The survey distributed to sixty drug information centers with the total responded forty-six center, the response rate was 76.66 %. The majority of hospitals 11 (23.9%) with (100-199) and 11 (23.9%) with (200-299 beds). In the pharmacy training programs, the highest workload and cost implicated was Pharm. D or Master Pharmacist on job training programs (1.34 FTE) with average daily cost was (170.12 USD). The highest daily workload and cost of education and training activities delivered to the healthcare professional was short education courses 1-5 days (0.72 FTE) with average daily cost was (91.53 USD). The highest daily workload and cost of education and training activities delivered by Drug Information Centers to Pharmacy staff was specialized Pharmacist Residency Program needed (6.56 FTE) with average daily cost was (832.13 USD). The highest workload and cost of education and training activities of drug information staff was specialized Pharmacist Residency Program needed (3.42 FTE) with average daily cost was (433.89 USD). <strong>Conclusion:</strong> One-third of the network drug information centers had education and training services despite the deficiency of the staff. Targeting of expanding the training services are highly recommended to cover the demand for hospital services. <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Key words:</strong> Network, Drug Information centers, Education, Training, Cost, Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Focused Debate on the Development of Ethical Reasoning Skills in Pharmacy Technician Students

Objective. To evaluate the effectiveness of debating an ethical dilemma on the development of ethical reasoning skills in pharmacy technician students. Methods. A mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods was used. This included analysis of before and after 5-minute papers, a sentiment survey, thematic analysis of student reflective writing and a qualitative questionnaire by an independent observer. Results. Twenty-five students participated in the study. The 5-minute papers showed improvement in student learning. In the sentiment survey, 83% of students agreed or strongly agreed that they had a better understanding of ethical dilemmas following the debate. The main theme identified from student blogs was the variety of different opinions expressed during the debate. Conclusion. Debating was an effective means of exploring ethics with pharmacy technician students.

Simulation-based Crisis Resource Management in Pharmacy Education

Objective. To describe strategies for implementation of simulation-based crisis resource management (CRM) in pharmacy education and present students' appreciation of an interdisciplinary CRM training at a university in Canada. Methods. In fall 2016, third-year undergraduate pharmacy students at Laval University and pharmacy technician students from Fierbourg school participated in a CRM activity and completed a five-item survey to assess the quality of the CRM activity they had just experienced. Paired t-tests were computed to detect differences of appreciation between pharmacy technician students and pharmacy students. Results. Students rated each item as very good or excellent varying from 81% to 97%. The only difference found between the two types of students was on their overall appreciation of the experience. Pharmacy technician students rated their experience as very good while pharmacy students rated it as excellent. Conclusion. CRM training can easily be adapted to the context of pharmacy education because its key concepts of team management, resource allocation, awareness of environment and dynamic decision-making directly apply to pharmacy practice. Based on the results of this study, students greatly value their CRM training experience. Future research is needed to measure the transfer into practice of CRM principles.

The perceptions of pharmacy and pharmacy technician students on the interprofessional simulation practices

The perceptions of pharmacy and pharmacy technician students on the interprofessional simulation practices

Introduction to Pharmaceutical Calculations - Fourth edition, Judith A. Rees, Ian Smith and Jennie Watson

This book by Rees, Smith and Watson is applicable to pharmacy students, pharmacy technician students, as well as instructors. The book is divided into 13 chapters and covers topics such as concentrations, dilutions and dosage calculation, that most pharmacy practitioners encounter. The authors have primarily used the concept of proportions to approach most of the mathematical problems covered in this book. The use of a consistent approach allows for continuity from one chapter to the next, and teaches students a single approach that enables solving most pharmacy-related mathematical problems. The drawback, however, is that this one single approach may not suit all readers and learning styles. The text is well laid out and easy to follow. Concepts are discussed thoroughly while some areas, e.g., density, specific gravity and significant figures, can benefit from more in depth discussions. The practice questions are relevant to most situations and are well-used to illustrate the concepts of interest. The number of examples and practice questions are sufficient. It is evident that the book is primarily intended for students in the UK since the British Pharmacopeia and British National Formulary are its main references. While readers outside of the UK will not have difficulty understanding the concepts, they will find some of the references not applicable. The authors included some discussion on infusion rates and concentrations. However, the book can benefit from inclusion of more in depth discussions and examples relevant to hospital practice (e.g., concentrations and the mixing of intravenous electrolyte solutions). The inclusion of access to online videos is a welcomed addition and can appeal to students with various learning styles. In conclusion, this is a useful text for students and instructors. The practice questions in this book are relevant to daily practice and can be used as a source of additional practice for students.

From Academia to Zimbabwe: Waterloo Pharmacy Students Go Global

From Academia to Zimbabwe: Waterloo Pharmacy Students Go Global

Attitudes of college students enrolled in 2-year health care programs towards online learning

Colleges offering 2-year diplomas to high-school graduates were among the forefront leaders in online learning however studies illustrating appropriate course construction for such student populations are scarce. Pharmacy Math (MATH16532) is a core course for students enrolled in the Practical Nursing (PN) and Pharmacy Technician (PT) programs at Sheridan Institute. PT and PN students enrolled in MATH16532 during their first term were surveyed to determine student attitudes and skills gained from participating in an online course. Students were then followed up during their second term studies to determine transferability of skills gained. Initially, students did not exhibit a positive attitude towards the online version of Math16532. Participation in the online version of MATH16532 however allowed students to enhance their written ability and critical appraisal skills, gain time management skills, and become independent learners. PT and PN students preferred an orientation session at the beginning of the course and a well organized, easy-to-navigate course. Even though considered as predominantly digital native students, both student groups remained anxious throughout the course regarding the online delivery and preferred a hybrid mode of delivery. Despite the initial resistance to an online math course, students indicated that they would retake the course again in an online format towards the end of the course and there appeared to be a trend to enrol in another online course. Several recommendations regarding the design and construct of online courses in a 2-year college program are provided to facilitate acceptance of online learning for students enrolled in such programs. ► Preparedness of College students towards online learning is considered. ► Students required ample preparation when enrolled in an online course. ► Students exhibited high anxiety levels towards an online version of Pharmacy Math. ► Students gained many skills by participating in an online Pharmacy Math course.