Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Standardized Patients and Simulation In Training and Assessing Ambulatory Patient Screening Skills in IPPE for P-II

PharmD CandidatesButch Habeger, RPh, MBA, Roland A Patry, MS, DrPH, Jessica M Weis, PharmD

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, School of Pharmacy

IntroductionACPE Accreditation Standards for Schools and Colleges of Pharmacy curricula require an early introduction to pharmacy practice experience (IPPE). At TTUHSC School of Pharmacy Amarillo and Abilene campuses, first and second-year PharmD Candidates participate in longitudinal IPPE courses throughout the Academic Year. For second-year Candidates, the course requires each Candidate to fulfill a minimum of four hours in providing patient screening in public health fair events for blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol, for which there has been no previous didactic or lab instruction for these point-of-care skills. The faculty course team designed the IPPE-II course for AY 2012 to use training videos, standardized patients (SP’s) and rubrics with SP simulation to train the students and assess their performance.

SP’s were trained to provide formative teaching and assessment of the Candidates’ skills through simulation and standardized rubrics. Candidates were scheduled for three 30-minute sessions with SP’s to practice each skill (not including obtaining actual blood samples), followed by a one-hour session to demonstrate each skill with the SP’s, who provided a formal assessment and score for each skill.

DiscussionMajor limitations to the study are:• there could be no faculty validation of

the SP scores, nor could there be a comparison of faculty to SP scores.

• SP training sessions were held separately for each campus and may have varied in content and effect.

• Variations in individual SP average scores may be due to a small sampling.

• Variations in individual SP interpretation of the rubric elements or inadequate or inconsistent training of SP’s in the interpretation and use of the rubrics may exist.

Methodology•Assessment rubric scores were summarized into blinded data tables.•Individual and composite SP scores were calculated for the mean and standard deviation. Mean scores for each SP were compared by to the mean for the composite SP scores to determine whether there was consistency or variation in individual SP scores.

Results• Most individual SP score averages were within the first

deviation of the composite mean.

• There is no statistical difference in scores between the Amarillo and Abilene SP groups.

Objectives•To evaluate the effectiveness of SP’s and simulation to teach and assess patient screening skills in blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol for second-year PharmD Candidates.

•To determine assessment consistency between SP groups at the Amarillo and Abilene campuses.

Conclusion•The individual SP mean scores are deemed to be appropriate and acceptable.

•The use of SP’s and simulation to teach and evaluate Candidates’ patient screening skills in IPPE-II is considered to be effective and is recommended to continue with improvements for Academic Year 2012-13.Acknowledgement: Course team members Mark Haase, PharmD, Jeanie Jaramillo,

PharmD, Celia Lu, PharmD, Sherida Nelson, RPh, Cynthia Raehl, PharmD, Heather Wild, PharmD, Stephen Wise, PharmD, Shannon Ferrill and Toni Johnson ; also Eric Maclaughlin, PharmD and Ashleigh Rozzell, BSN for their assistance

Statistics