Abstract

Adil Abdelrahman Mahmoud*

ABSTRACT

Objectives: The study aims to evaluate the advanced pharmacy practice experience clerkship of drug information among doctor of pharmacy degree (Pharm D) students, before and after the rotation, and to assess the impact of the training on improving students ‘skills. Methods: The study was pre-and-after study, in which two self-administered questionnaires were given in the start and the end of the rotation, to the students. The same questionnaire core items were given also to the preceptor. Convenient sample was chosen from2015/2016(13/50), and 2016/2017 (43/54) academic sessions. Descriptive statistics and Paired T-test were used. Results: The two most important desired and learned skills were correct use of drug information resources (30.56% desired, 26.17 learned), effective use of references (15.74% desired, 15.89% learned), critical appraisal (12.04% desired, 14.95% learned). Most students showed higher means of the results at the end of the rotation: ability to accept criticism and advice (4.64), attending activities and accomplishing duties on time (4.57), can work independently (4.55), important and active member (4.48) ability to make decisions (4.46), and ability to use resources (4.46) Students ‘ratings for themselves were higher than the preceptor in all the activities. Conclusion: The study showed obvious improvement in skills of drug information skills among the final year Pharm D students. There is overestimation in the students ‘results when compared with the Preceptor evaluation. Students should be oriented about the objectives of the clerkship and, the training course should always be revised according to the feedback from the students and preceptor’s assessments. Students’ pre-assessment is important in discovering the weakest points in the required skills.