Redesigning the Teaching of Medication Management and Counselling Skills for Pharmacy Students: A Reflection on Experiences and Teaching Practices

Abstract

Pharmacy graduates need to demonstrate competency in medication management and counseling (MMC) skills such as dispensing, counseling, communication, and documentation for registration as a pharmacist. Undergraduate Pharmacy students at the National University of Singapore (NUS) develop these skills in a sequence of three Pharmacy Professional Skills Development (PPSD) modules. PPSD III traditionally conducts two rounds of MMC practical sessions using one-on-one role play between a student and a faculty member or clinical tutor. The manpower and resources required to conduct these sessions are significant and challenging to sustain for a large undergraduate class averaging 180 students per year. In Academic Year (AY) 2018/19, the first round of MMC practical was redesigned into a tutorial format to capitalise on the strengths of tutorials in facilitating interactions between students and faculty, and engaging students in problem-solving. This report describes our experiences in implementing the MMC tutorial and our students’ perceptions. We also reflect on our experiences and share learning points for future improvements. Our students believed that the MMC tutorial facilitated their learning of MMC skills (77.4%). They preferred hands-on activities such as documentation and generation of labels (85.8%), and interactions with faculty such as discussions and role plays (86.9% and 75.9% respectively). Significant improvement in students’ self-reported confidence was observed for all MMC skills taught during the tutorial. To further improve students’ learning experiences, tutorial activities should strive to mimic similar conditions as what would be expected of students in graded assessments, such as independent problem-solving under time constraints.