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Northeastern University School of Pharmacy

Northeastern University's School of Pharmacy is a member of the Marjorie Bouvé College of Health Sciences. The school offers six specialties of which pharmacy is one. The college is an interdisciplinary community which encourages cooperation between members of the healthcare team. The Doctor of Pharmacy Program provides a foundation of basic science and targeted liberal arts course work, a comprehensive, integrated professional course curriculum and extensive professional work experience which prepares students for the challenging clerkship rotations in a wide variety of pharmacy practice settings. These professional experiences along with many of its courses, geared towards interactive learning, together build a well rounded curriculum for the pharmacy student. Students of the Bouvé college have the opportunity to participate in the Cooperative Education program. In the summer following their sophomore year, students begin alternating between periods of full-time, paid work in community, hospital, and specialty pharmacy practice and study in the classroom. The co-op program, challenges students to apply their classroom knowledge in a real-world setting and experience different job opportunities available in the diverse field of pharmacy. For this reason students are able to receive a thorough education where they gain knowledge of their field; in class, practice this knowledge on standardized patients through simulation programs, and then finally have an opportunity to help patients in the real world while on co-op.

Role playing at Northeastern University School of Pharmacy

These courses that foster a well rounded curriculum use a specialized form of teaching. the best way to think of it is to relate it to role playing. The pharmacy program is such that students take laboratory courses, Pharm Care lab 1 and 2. These courses are designed to offer students an opportunity to obtain functional knowledge and skills in the area of interpretation and processing of medication orders, detection and resolution of drug-related problems, physical assessment, and patient education and counseling. The course utilizes simulation, videos, podcasts, and hands-on activities. The purpose of the course is to challenge students to recount information and knowledge gathered over the years and apply it to clinical situations. Like other courses offered at other universities, the course aims to prepare students for their upcoming rotations and a career in patient-centered pharmacy practice. Students at the end of their course work at Northeastern will be more proficient once they reach the workforce because they have been exposed to many situations that cannot be fully understood while in a lecture classroom.

Another course that is part of the pharmacy curriculum is termed, Communication Skills for Pharmacists. This class provides a focused environment for students to engage in effective interpersonal communication. This class also utilizes role playing because it allows students to interact with standardized patients electronically, by watching videos, and through written and oral exercises. In this way, students are able to practice core skills: listening, asking questions, empathy, understanding and managing confusion. Students are faced with conflict and nonverbal behavior and are forced to adapt and react to these situations in an appropriate manner. They also get experience with tailoring communication to special patient populations all while maintaining a professional presentation. Northeastern does not claim to be the only pharmacy school that offers such active learning interposed into its curriculum. It is among other school that are aware of the morphing role of the pharmacist. Northeastern, along with other institutions, is making provisions, for this reason, to produce pharmacists that will be suited for what lies ahead in whatever aspect of pharmacy they choose to embark.

References

Role-play is a changing of one's behavior to fulfill social roles. It is a method of education that can be used to explore the issues involved in complex social situations that can arise in the context of any health professional's interactions with non-health professionals. In particular this is useful in training geared towards patient-pharmacist interactions.

Training

Health Education

Role playing is a method being used in occupational training and more specifically in the health care professions. It is developing a more pronounced role in the Doctor of Pharmacy, or Pharm D, curriculum. It is a beneficial form of teaching future pharmacists today. It helps undergraduate students develop consultation skills. Role playing is an exemplary form of active learning. By treating patients, in a simulation or real life, their confidence increases while at the same time their perception of the difficulty of completing the task decreases. Role playing is used in the curriculum not only to provide practice for certain situations, but also to expose students to topics that require real life exposure in order for full understanding. The effectiveness of using role playing to teach is seen best through student self-reporting of gained skill or mastery in a particular area of pharmacy.

Effectiveness of Role Play

To put role playing into practice within the curriculum, a typology known as category role-switch is utilized. This typology describes an exercise that helps students understand a concept by taking on a role of another person or abstract entity, a molecule. In this way a student is able to take on multiple tasks during a single interaction and this allows the simultaneous development of several skills. At the end of the role-play course method, a survey was administered to gather a self-assessment of the usefulness of the role-play method to pharmacy students. There were two surveys given each semester. During the first semester the survey aimed to understand the perceived usefulness of role-play as an educational method for developing necessary patient care skills. A majority of students claimed that the model was useful in the development of most skills except for professional attitudes and accurate documentation of information. Students went as far as to suggest that they not only developed skills but also acquired certain skills in the process. Such skills include: developing confidence in their questioning skills, demonstrating empathy for the patient, and improving their ability to provide feedback to others and accept constructive criticism. The second semester survey assessed the perceived usefulness of small groups that were used in developing various skills. The majority reported that they were only somewhat confident in all areas. This is due to the fact that to tailor a person’s proficiency in a certain skill, each individual should be addressed as such rather than in a small group setting.

Why its Useful

Deepa Rao suggests that role play has been a successful approach to developing skills in active listening, problem solving, demonstrating empathy, working as a team, acquiring knowledge, and communicating efficiently. These skills take affect most invaluably when it comes to how a pharmacist communicates during consultation and medication history-taking. Role playing as a curriculum practice even expands outside the curriculum and is useful when evaluating the effectiveness of training programs such as tobacco cessation and intercultural communication competence and when developing new course. Role-play gives students an opportunity to learn which ways would be best to approach socioeconomic class with which they may not necessary be a part. Pharmacists garner the role as community advocates and for that reason it is their responsibility to ensure the health and well-being of the community. This is done through such smoking cessation training programs. Without proper communication skills or ability to relate, pharmacists are not able to effectively communicate the importance of living a health conscious lifestyle.