Interprofessional Pharmacy Observation Activity for Third‐Year Dental Students

Abstract

Interprofessional learning is a key component of today's health sciences education. Within a two-course series in dental pharmacology and therapeutics, a dental curriculum was revised to provide an interprofessional activity to expose dental students to a community pharmacy setting. The objectives of this activity were to augment students' learning about drug laws and prescription writing, as well as to foster interprofessional relationships and collaboration between pharmacists and dentists. Dental students were scheduled for one-hour observations at community pharmacies on campus. Learning objectives to guide this activity focused on demonstrating community pharmacy operating procedures, identifying ways to minimize prescribing and dosing errors, and understanding how pharmacists can assist dentists in prescribing. Following the observation, students were required to submit a written assignment, which accounted for 14 percent of their course grade. All 119 dental students (100 percent) enrolled in the course for the summers of 2012 and 2013 completed the activity. The average grade on the written assignment was 96.2 out of 100. At the end of the course, students were asked to participate in an online course evaluation survey, for which response rates were 37 percent and 43 percent for 2012 and 2013, respectively. The students rated the pharmacy observation activity favorably on this course evaluation. The pharmacy observation activity provided a successful interprofessional component to the didactic pharmacy course and was well received by the dental students as well as the community pharmacists.

Assessment of drug-prescribing perception and practice among dental care providers: a cross-sectional Lebanese study

“…Implementing innovative learning techniques in a dental curriculum, such as interactive sessions with pharmacists, can be a good alternative. 31 , 32 …”

Interprofessional education between dentistry and pharmacy students: delivery, barriers and facilitating implementation

“…16 Dentistry students observing a community pharmacy setting enhanced their pharmacology knowledge, found opportunities for collaboration and developed an appreciation for the roles a pharmacist plays in areas such as tobacco cessation, prescription errors and dosage formulation for children. 1 Another study showed that having both pharmacy students and dentistry students in a dental clinic allowed opportunity for increased identification of high-risk patients, such as those with diabetes or tobacco smokers. 6 Pharmacy and dental students at the University of Otago, New Zealand have initiated practicing together to discuss the dental care and medication history of patients within dental clinics to enhance their learning and improve patient outcomes.…”

“…These themes are not entirely discipline-specific but were particularly noted within the two professions in the IPE literature. 1,[4][5][6]12,14,16,17,20,21,[24][25][26][27]29,33,[39][40][41][42][43] Developing a national network, such as the European Interprofessional…”

A Pharmacist’s Role in a Dental Clinic: Establishing a Collaborative and Interprofessional Education Site

“…Despite the identified benefits of pharmacist-dentist interprofessional collaboration, a review of the literature illustrates that routine collaboration between the professions is lacking. 1 , 5 , 12 , 20 , 23 – 28 . Thus far there have only been six studies published in this area.…”