Evaluation of an Intra-Professional Learning workshop between Pharmacy and Pharmacy Technician Students

Transcription

1 Evaluation of an Intra-Professional Learning workshop between Pharmacy and Pharmacy Technician Students Mrs Helen Cook, School of Pharmacy, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP Abstract Interprofessional Education (IPE) is a requirement of healthcare professional undergraduate courses and there is an existing body of literature within this area. In preparation for clinical practice, pharmacy students also need to understand specific roles within the pharmacy team. Whilst intraprofessional learning may be of value in this context, there remains a gap in the literature in this area. An opportunity arose to explore intra-professional working between pharmacy students (n=) and pharmacy technician students (n=8) as part of a broader strategy to promote interprofessional collaboration at Bradford School of Pharmacy. Using learning outcomes closely aligned to recommendations for IPE, a three hour workshop explored roles, responsibilities and negotiation skills within these groups. A feedback form with rating-scale questions and space for free text comments was given to all participants in order to explore the students perceptions of the value of the workshop opportunity. Qualitative data was fully transcribed and subject to thematic analysis. Overall, students were positive about the workshop (7.% of pharmacy students and 9.9% of pharmacy technician students), valued sharing knowledge and ideas and would recommend future workshop opportunities. In terms of specific content however, there was a mixed response to the use of case-studies, ranging from enhanced understanding of roles to questioning need. This was a small scale evaluation but suggests that further intraprofessional learning opportunities should be considered within an overall strategy of promoting interprofessional education initiatives. Further research and evaluation in this area of student engagement are also highlighted. Context and Background In practice, patients are cared for by a wide range of healthcare professionals who need to be able to work effectively as a team in order to provide the best care possible for the patient. In order to support the development of students with the appropriate skills to promote effective multidisciplinary teamwork, Interprofessional Education (IPE) has been introduced as a requirement of many healthcare professional undergraduate courses and there is an existing body of literature within this area (M.Hammick, 007). One of the recommendations by the Centre for the Advancement of Inter Professional Education (CAIPE) for IPE pre-registration courses in the UK is that every effort is made to include student groups for professions likely to work in the same settings in their subsequent careers (Barr, H and Low, H 01). Thus, as well as understanding the roles of other healthcare professionals, it is important for pharmacy students to understand the roles of others within the pharmacy team, for example pharmacy technicians, as this is key to effective team-working. A survey of 1500 pharmacists and 1500 pharmacy technicians, ascertaining their views on effective skill mix within the pharmacy team (as a consequence of changes to pharmacist supervision requirements) found differing perceptions held by pharmacists and pharmacy

2 technicians and suggested they may benefit from joint learning during undergraduate study in order to foster mutual role understanding (Ellen Schafheutle, 01). An opportunity arose to explore intra-professional working between pharmacy students and pharmacy technician students as part of a broader strategy to promote interprofessional collaboration at Bradford School of Pharmacy. Summary of Work A hour workshop on Relationships with Healthcare Professionals involved final ( th ) year undergraduate pharmacy students from the University of Bradford and 8 final ( nd ) year pharmacy technician students from Bradford College. The workshop was led by a community pharmacist teacher-practitioner in conjunction with the pharmacy technician course leader and was based around three case studies: Planning for a patient discharge; a patient in the community recently discharged from hospital; negotiation between a community pharmacy and a care home following a complaint from the care home. The students worked in mixed groups and had to present their thoughts back to the whole group for discussion, facilitated by the lecturers. The learning outcomes of the workshop were to be able to: Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of collaboration Identify the advantages, disadvantages and barriers to effective collaboration Recognise techniques to deal with difficult health professionals Practice the skills of influencing and negotiation These learning outcomes were closely aligned to those recommended for IPE (Jill Thistlethwaite, 010), including teamwork, roles and responsibilities and negotiation skills. A feedback form, consisting of questions with rating scales and an opportunity to provide qualitative data (free text comments) (Gillham, B. 007), was given to all participants (sample of convenience) at the end of the workshop in order to explore the students perceptions of the workshop. Thematic analysis was used to evaluate the qualitative data (Braun, V. 006).

3 Results 75% of pharmacy students and 100% of pharmacy technician students completed the postworkshop evaluation questionnaire. Graph 1: How useful was content of workshop? Pharmacy students Pharmacy technician students 55.6% of the pharmacy students and 89.% of the pharmacy technician students found the content of the workshop either useful or very useful (scored or 5 on a scale of 1-5). Basic comments such as very useful and okay, but without any reasons given for the response, were made by - students in each group. Two pharmacy students stated that they didn t really feel the need for it or that they knew everything but otherwise all comments were of a positive nature. The main theme commented on by pharmacy students was that the cases / scenarios were real life and, as one student commented, helped to understand the situation better and learn from this and that information derived from it could be used in the future. The pharmacy technician students also commented on how close the cases matched real life situations but the main theme was how the content allowed them to exchange ideas with the pharmacy students. Example comments included: It helped us get other professionals view ; exchanged ideas with pharmacy students ; opportunity to share our experiences of pharmacy. A third theme from the comments made by the pharmacy technician students was that the content of the workshop was clearly linked to other aspects of the technicians course, as could be seen by comments such as we can use this information in any coursework or at work and will help with various units at college.

4 Graph : What did you think about having this workshop with pharmacy students and pharmacy technician students together? Pharmacy students Pharmacy technician students 7.% of the pharmacy students and 9.9% of the pharmacy technician students were positive about having the workshop together (scored or 5 on a scale of 1-5). As with the previous question, there were a number of basic comments such as useful or OK. Table 1: Themes and example comments to the question What did you think about having this workshop with pharmacy students and pharmacy technician students together? Theme Pharmacy students example comments Knowledge Learnt a lot from them their knowledge and experiences. Pharmacy technician students example comments They had a lot of theoretical knowledge and we had practical knowledge worked well together. We have more practical knowledge and pharmacy students have more theoretical knowledge. It was useful getting to compare knowledge and experience in pharmacy.

5 Theme Pharmacy students example comments Pharmacy technician students example comments Sharing ideas Different ideas on approaching tasks. Provides a great perspective when discussing tasks with other HCP. Useful to work together and share ideas with each other Different ideas and different thoughts. Interaction from each other and ideas with each other. It s good to get the different viewpoints and use their different training. Relationships Helped develop future relationships with technicians. Working as a team, getting to know other people. When asked what aspects of the workshop they particularly liked, the responses centred on the theme of sharing knowledge. In particular, the pharmacy students felt they learnt a lot about the workplace from the pharmacy technician students, whereas the pharmacy technician students highlighted the theoretical knowledge that they learnt from the pharmacy students. Aspects of the workshop that students felt could be improved were to include other healthcare professionals (comment from pharmacy students) and to have a longer day so that more scenarios could be covered (comment from pharmacy technicians). Both sets of students suggested having more time to discuss the different things they do. All but one pharmacy student and two pharmacy technician students said they would recommend the workshop to others if it was delivered again. Discussion Overall, the workshop was well received and only three participants stated that they would not recommend the workshop to others if it was delivered again. However, there were clear differences in the overall responses to the workshop between the pharmacy and pharmacy technician students. As can be seen from the two graphs, the pharmacy students rated the intraprofessional aspect of the workshop higher than the actual content (7.% vs 55.6% rating or 5), whereas the pharmacy technician students rated both aspects highly (89.% and 9.9% rating or 5) and, overall, were more positive about the workshop than the pharmacy students. Analysis of the students comments to all the questions highlighted that the pharmacy technician students valued learning from the pharmacy students whereas the pharmacy students valued learning about the pharmacy technician students and therefore appear to be meeting the aim of IPE, which is defined as occasions when two or more professions learn from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care (CAIPE 1997). Reasons for the differences in responses from the two groups of students may be due to their different backgrounds. The pharmacy students are full time students on a -year undergraduate degree with only a few days work-based learning placements each year and thus came to the workshop with a more theoretical knowledge base. The pharmacy technician students are in employment (in hospital or community pharmacy) and attend college one day a week for years

6 and thus have a much greater understanding of the workplace. This may mean the pharmacy technician students had a better understanding of how the workshop was relevant to their practice. Building on what has been learnt in the classroom setting and linking this into the pharmacy students work-based learning activities would enable the students to benefit further from this initial experience (Barr, H. 01) This study provided valuable learning which can be acted upon in future evaluation of IPE. The evaluator was unable to attend and observe the actual workshop session. This would have been useful in interpreting the students responses. Group dynamics may have affected some respondents answers. In future, it would be useful to add a question such as How well did your group work as a team? in order to be able to assess whether this could be a factor. Better labelling of the student responses when typing up the feedback would have allowed similar comments to different questions to be matched to the respondent to allow clearer analysis. For example, were the negative comments to different questions made by the same respondent? This workshop was held as part of a th -year optional module for the pharmacy students and thus only about a quarter of the th students attended the workshop. There are 00 pharmacy students in each year of the MPharm at the University of Bradford but only 0-0 pharmacy technician students in each cohort at Bradford College. If the workshop was to be repeated to allow all students to have the experience, it would mean having a ration of 1:10 pharmacy technician to pharmacy students, which is not conducive to effect group work. Further discussion is being undertaken between Bradford School of Pharmacy and the team at Bradford College to look at ways of continuing intra-professional learning that may overcome this issue. The pharmacy technicians have to complete a unit of assessment involving educating others, and this may be one way to allow the pharmacy students to learn about the roles of the pharmacy technician in practice. Conclusion This was a small scale evaluation but suggests that further intraprofessional learning opportunities should be considered within an overall strategy of promoting interprofessional education initiatives.

7 References Barr, H and Low, H (01) Interprofessional Learning in pre-registration education courses: A CAIPE guide for commissioners and regulators of education. London: CAIPE. Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology: (): CAIPE (1997). Interprofessional education, a definition. London: CAIPE. Ellen I Schafheutle, Fay Bradley, Sarah C Willis, Peter R Noyce. (01). Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians: learning to work together effectively - inter - or intra - professional education?. Presented at Monash Pharmacy Education Symposium 01 - Teaching for Learning. Monash University, Prato, Italy: Pharmacy Education 1(1): escholarid: Gillham, B (007). Developing a Questionnaire. nd Ed. Continuum International Publishing Group. London. Jill Thistlethwaite & Monica Moran on behalf of the World Health Organisation Study Group on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (010), Learning outcomes for interprofessional education (IPE): Literature review and synthesis. Journal of Interprofessional Care, September 010; (5): M.Hammick, D. Freeth, I. Koppel, S. Reeves, H. Barr (007). A best evidence systematic review of interprofessional education: BEME Guide no. 9. Medical Teacher 9 (8):