METHODS: The 2-unit leadership course was piloted among second- and third-year students in a public college of pharmacy with a 4-year doctor of pharmacy curriculum. The participating students completed the LABS-III during the first and last classes as part of a quality improvement measure for course enhancement. Rasch analysis was then used to assess the reliability and validity evidence for the LABS-III.
RESULTS: A total of 24 students participated in the pilot course. The pre and postcourse surveys had 100% and 92% response rates, respectively. After Rasch analysis model fit was achieved, the item separation for the 14 nonextreme items was 2.19 with an item reliability of 0.83. The person separation index was 2.16 with a person reliability of 0.82.
CONCLUSION: The Rasch analysis revealed that the number of LABS-III items should be decreased and that the 3-point response scale should be used to improve functionality and use in classroom settings for PharmD students in the United States. Further research is needed to augment the reliability and validity evidence of the modified instrument for use at other United States colleges of pharmacy.
METHODS: A three-station OSCE set in a hospital and community pharmacy was designed and mapped to the World Health Organisation's AMS intervention practical guide. This OSCE comprised 39 unique cases and was implemented across two campuses (Malaysia and Australia) at one institute. Stations were 8 min long and consisted of problem-solving and applying AMS principles to drug therapy management (Station 1), counselling on key antimicrobials (Station 2) or managing infectious diseases in primary care (Station 3). Primary outcome measure to assess viability was the proportion of students who were able to pass each case.
KEY FINDINGS: Other than three cases with pass rates of 50, 52.8 and 66. 7%, all cases had pass rates of 75% or more. Students were most confident with referral to medical practitioner cases and switching from intravenous to oral or empirical to directed therapy.
CONCLUSIONS: An AMS-based OSCE is a viable assessment tool in pharmacy education. Further research should explore whether similar assessments can help improve students' confidence at recognising opportunities for AMS intervention in the workplace.
METHODS: A bibliometric review was conducted on literature from over 23 years from January 2000 to May 2023. Articles focusing on any type of OSCE research in pharmacy education in both undergraduate and postgraduate sectors were included. Articles were excluded if they were not original articles or not published in English. A summative content analysis was also conducted to identify key topics.
RESULTS: A total of 192 articles were included in the analysis. There were 242 institutions that contributed to the OSCE literature in pharmacy education, with the leading country being Canada. Most OSCE research came from developed countries and were descriptive studies based on single institution data. The top themes emerging from content analysis were student perceptions on OSCE station styles (n = 98), staff perception (n = 19), grade assessment of OSCEs (n = 145), interprofessional education (n = 11), standardized patients (n = 12), and rubric development and standard setting (n = 8).
IMPLICATIONS: There has been a growth in virtual OSCEs, interprofessional OSCEs, and artificial intelligence OSCEs. Communication rubrics and minimizing assessor variability are still trending research areas. There is scope to conduct more research on evaluating specific types of OSCEs, when best to hold an OSCE, and comparing OSCEs to other assessments.
METHODS: A cross-sectional data analysis of Pharmacy students' learning environment from 2011-2015 based on data from module, faculty, IMU-REEM and Student Barometer Survey was applied. Feedback obtained from the data was triangulated to establish commonalities/differences of the issues.
RESULTS: Based on the analysis, issues affecting Pharmacy student learning experiences were identified. The identified issues included teaching by subject matter experts, pedagogical delivery and physical learning environment. Seven lessons were presented for educators to assess the practicality of the feedback.
CONCLUSIONS: The feedback serves as a means to improve the Pharmacy program. Nonetheless, the challenges lie between the ideal and realistic expectations of students in optimizing the learning experiences. Lessons acquired from the evaluation of the learning environment are essential for educators in managing and using the information.
METHODS: The perspective, experiences and insights of educators from various backgrounds, origin and educational levels were sought regarding the role of pharmacy education in providing pharmaceutical research and development workforce.
RESULTS: Many countries around the world are currently undertaking major reforms in pharmacy education due to the changing landscape of health and healthcare delivery. These reforms must be accompanied by robust systems to assure that the quality of educational structures, processes and outcomes will produce competent pharmacy graduates in the future. It is also considered imperative that pharmacy academic institutions should establish collaboration with the drug development units, the pharmaceutical industry and government agencies for sustainability and positive research outcomes.
CONCLUSION: Shortcomings in pharmacy curricula need to be addressed and the authors have proposed the 'TARGET' approach for the development of integrated pharmacy curriculum to substantially contribute to pharmaceutical research and development.