The number of transgender and gender-diverse patients seeking medical care in the United States is increasing. For many of these patients, pharmacotherapy is a part of their gender-affirming transition. Effective instructional methods and resources for teaching pharmacy students about this patient population’s social considerations and medical treatments is lacking. Three hours of educational material on caring for transgender patients was added to a third-year course in a four-year Doctorate of Pharmacy program in the United States. The content included cultural, empathy, and medical considerations. Students in the course were given a survey to assess their perception of each instructional method’s effectiveness and self-assess their confidence in providing competent gender-affirming care to transgender people before and after the learning session. The survey response rate was 36% (54/152). Students’ self-assessed confidence to provide competent care to people who are transgender increased significantly. Before the learning session, the median confidence level was 4/10 (Interquartile range (IQR) 3–6), after the class session, the median confidence increased to 7/10 (IQR 6–8, p < 0.01). Students rated the pre-class video, jeopardy game, and patient panel as most helpful to improving their skills. The addition of transgender-related patient care material into the Doctorate of Pharmacy curriculum significantly increased the students’ confidence to provide competent care to people who are transgender.
Pharmacy residents' knowledge of biostatistics is a self-identified deficit. To describe statistical training practices across postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) pharmacy residency programs and correlate training practices with residency program directors' (RPDs) confidence in their residents' statistical abilities. A 13-item survey was sent to PGY1 RPDs and included questions regarding respondents' institution, program characteristics, type and amount of statistical training offered and desired, as well as performance of statistics, resident project publication rates, and RPDs' confidence in residents' statistical abilities. Of the 1054 RPDs invited to participate in the survey, 202 (19.7%) surveys were completed. Nearly 25% of PGY1 pharmacy residency programs in this sample offered no statistical training to their residents. The most common types of training were study design considerations/selecting statistical tests (64.9%), descriptive statistics (59.9%), and database development/data manipulation (46.6%). The majority (60.9%) of RPDs had low confidence in their residents' abilities to perform their own statistical analysis. After adjusting for significant covariates, residents receiving complex statistical training (odds ratio [OR]: 6.76; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.7-24.9) and a publication rate>50% (OR: 5.63; 95% CI: 1.61-19.69) were associated with higher RPD confidence in residents' abilities to perform statistical analyses. The sample of programs in this survey indicates that statistical training for many residents may be limited, and many RPDs are not confident in their residents' abilities to perform statistical analysis of research projects. Statistical training and opportunities to enhance research skills may be an area for future growth in pharmacy residency training programs.
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