COVID-19-Driven Improvements and Innovations in Pharmacy Education: A Scoping Review

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic led to many colleges of pharmacy having to make major changes relating to their infrastructure and delivery of their curriculum within a very short time frame, including the transition of many components to an online setting. This scoping review sought to summarize what is known about the impact of COVID-19 on pharmacy education and the effectiveness of adaptation strategies which were put in place. PubMed, Web of Science, OVID Medline, and MedEdPortal were searched to identify pharmacy education-related articles published since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. For article inclusion, the following criteria had to be met: described original research, related directly to PharmD or PharmBS education, related to the impact of COVID-19 on pharmacy education, and was available in English. Out of a total of 813 articles, 50 primary research articles were selected for inclusion. Our review of these identified four domains relating to the impact of COVID-19 on pharmacy education and/or effectiveness of adaptation strategies: (1) lab-based courses and activities (including interprofessional education activities), (2) experiential education, (3) didactic education, and (4) student well-being. The key research findings are summarized and discussed. While the COVID-19 pandemic has clearly brought many challenges to pharmacy education, it has also led to key improvements and innovations.

A SWOT Analysis of Pharmacy Students’ Perspectives on e-Learning Based on a Narrative Review

“…Globally, 39 papers and 1 report were selected: PubMed (n = 33) [ 10 , 13 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ], SciELO (n = 1) [ 52 ], Google Scholar (n = 6) [ 8 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 ], and sites of known international organizations (n = 1) [ 3 ].…”

“…The selected publications were classified as follows: 7 reviews [ 8 , 13 , 23 , 41 , 43 , 52 , 53 ]; 31 original research publications [ 10 , 21 , 22 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 42 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 55 , 56 , 57 ]; 1 commentary [ 47 ]; 1 case study [ 54 ]; 1 report [ 3 ].…”

Qualitative interviews with Doctor of Pharmacy Graduates on Care Provision to Patients with Mental Illness after a Psychiatric Rotation

“…Nevertheless, some of the participants still felt that essential elements of the rotation experience were missing. As such, the integration of telemedicine is beginning to be at the forefront of many health professions programs, and should be considered into the contingency plans for psychiatric rotations in case of future emergencies [34,35].…”

Impact of Different Attitudes toward Face-to-Face and Online Classes on Learning Outcomes in Japan

“…Since the pandemic, online-based learning has become mainstream in many countries, and its learning outcomes have been evaluated [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. A scoping review reported in 2022 aimed to summarize the findings on the impact of COVID-19 on pharmacy education and the effectiveness of the real-world response measures [ 10 ]. However, while these reports indicate that online-based learning needs to be optimized in the future [ 3 ], the number of reports required for this purpose is not sufficient.…”