Pharmacy, Volume 2, Issue 2 (June 2014) – 4 articles , Pages 137-201

Background: Peer to peer learning is a well-established learning modality which has been shown to improve learning outcomes, with positive implications for clinical practice. Surgical students from across Ireland were invited to upload learning points daily while paired with their peers in a peer-reviewing process. This study was designed to assess content accuracy and evaluate the benefit of the review process. Method: A reflective content sample was selected from the database representing all gastrointestinal (GI) surgical entries. All questions and answers were double corrected by four examiners, blinded to the “review” status of the entries. Statistical analysis was performed to compare accuracy between “reviewed” and “non-reviewed” entries. Results: There were 15,569 individual entries from 2009–2013, 2977 were GI surgery entries; 678 (23%) were peer reviewed. Marked out of 5, accuracy in the reviewed group was 4.24 and 4.14 in the non-reviewed group. This was not statistically different (p = 0.11). Accuracy did not differ between universities or grade of tutors. Conclusion: The system of student uploaded data is accurate and was not improved further through peer review. This represents an easy, valuable and safe method of capturing surgical oral ward based teaching. Full article

Professionalization of pharmacy students requires that they both recognize the dynamic social contract between the public and the profession and demonstrate themselves competent in professional attributes. This pilot aims to demonstrate and assess the attributes of reflective practice and teamwork in a manner that also demonstrates student recognition of the profession’s responsibilities towards addiction to medicines. The assessment of a series of 8 weekly workshops on addiction pharmacy was adapted to include an online reflection, or journal entry, after each workshop. Groups of up to five students also collaboratively prepared a letter, in the format of an online wiki or editable website, to a choice of the Minister for Health, a national newspaper or a popular television chat-show. Groups aimed to influence decision-makers in a manner supportive of society’s management of drug addiction. Online activity, grading and results of a student survey indicate that this novel assessment strategy provides a means by which aspects of the professionalization of pharmacy students might be effectively demonstrated and assessed. The article shares the assessment design, indicates how it may facilitate the demonstration and assessment of professional attributes, highlights the link with elements of the professionalization process and concludes that further investigations are merited. Full article

The goal of the PHAR-QA (quality assurance in European pharmacy education and training) project is the production of a European framework for a quality assurance system based on competences for pharmacy practice. The PHAR-QA framework will be European, consultative and will encompass the various aspects of pharmacy practice. In this review, we describe the methodology to be used in the project and the first stage in the development of this framework. Using the proposals for competences produced by our previous PHARMINE (Pharmacy education in Europe) project, together with those of other sources, three university professors of pharmacy (Authors 2 through 4) produced a list of three major competency domains that reflect the activities of practitioners: Patient Care Competences, Personal Competences and Management and Organizational Structure Competences. Each domain was subdivided into nine, nine and eight competencies, respectively, for a total of 27 major competencies that were further subdivided into an average of five supporting competences per major competence, giving a total of 140 proposals for competences for pharmacy practice. The 27 and 140 proposals were ranked by an expert panel of seven university professors of pharmacy (Authors 5 through 11). The panel also commented on the proposed competences. On the basis of the ranks and comments, a list of 68 proposals for competences was produced. This list was then examined by the expert panel and a new version based on their comments produced. The latter process was repeated twice based on Delphi methodology. This review presents this process and the 68 proposals. We invite the pharmacy community to participate in the second stage of the elaboration of the PHAR-QA competence framework for pharmacy practice by ranking the proposals and adding comments. It is anticipated that this survey will stimulate a productive discussion on pharmacy education and practice by the various stakeholders (department staff and students, community, hospital and industrial pharmacists, as well as pharmacists working in clinical biology and other branches, together with representatives of chambers and associations). Full article

Workshop analysis of scenarios or vignettes has traditionally been used to develop and demonstrate the moral reasoning underpinning professional decisions. However, in order to facilitate sufficiently individualized interaction to accommodate the assessment of student competencies related to decision-making through scenarios, such workshops are traditionally used with small groups. There are associated resource implications for the scheduling of sessions and implications for tutor time where large cohorts of students are targeted. In addition, the requirement that students be face-to-face is problematic when students are in practice placements that are geographically removed. This paper demonstrates how technology and an assessment tool, known as an “intermediate concept measure” (ICM), might help address these limitations. It introduces the background to ICMs and presents the ICM as a tool that has potential to support professional education. It also shares learning experienced by one pharmacist using ICMs in pharmacy education, provides an example of how a profession-specific ICM might be formatted, suggests how the methodology might be used in undergraduate and postgraduate education and provides samples of measurables that may be incorporated into evaluation and assessment systems; both for educational interventions delivered face-to-face or partly or entirely online. The limitations of the methodologies and suggestions for further research are included. Full article