Medication Therapy Management Services Provided by Student Pharmacists

Abstract

Objectives. To evaluate the impact of student pharmacists delivering medication therapy management (MTM) services during an elective advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE). Methods. Student pharmacists provided MTM services at community pharmacy APPE sites, documented their recommendations, and then made follow-up telephone calls to patients to determine the impact of the MTM provided. Students were surveyed about the MTM experience. Results. Forty-seven students provided MTM services to 509 patients over 2 years and identified 704 drug-related problems (average of 1.4 problems per patient). About 53% of patients relayed the recommendations to their physician and 205 (75%) physicians accepted the recommendations. Eighty-eight percent of patients reported feeling better about their medications after receiving MTM services. A majority of the students perceived their provision of MTM services as valuable to their patients. Conclusions. Providing MTM services to patients in a pharmacy practice setting allowed student pharmacists to apply skills learned in the doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum.

Reflective Practice and Its Implications for Pharmacy Education

“…Lack of resources and lack of motivation are potential reasons, but these are not unique to pharmacy. 34 One explanation is that pharmacy education research focuses on developing a knowledge base, [35][36][37][38] providing services, 39,40 and mastering skills 41,42 rather than on developing reflective information exchange. Also, reflective activities in pharmacy education may be limited because of a lack of available teaching resources.…”

Assessing Student Pharmacists’ Ability to Identify Drug-Related Problems in Patients Within a Patient-Centered Medical Home

“…One study that evaluated the impact of student pharmacists' ability to intervene on DRPs found 75% of recommendations made to the physician were accepted, while a second study found that only 32% of recommendations were accepted. 23,24 Recommendations were done through the patient or via fax; therefore, lower rates of accepted recommendations were likely a reflection of the indirect communication with physicians. Abdelhalim and Lundquist measured the acceptance rates of recommendations made by students who had direct contact with attending physicians in the primary care setting.…”

Self-directed pharmacotherapy learning to fifth-year pharmacy students in Spain

“…13 Gaining pharmacotherapy knowledge and at the same time applying this knowledge in practice is essential for learning in general and, presumably, also for the development of patient-centered care by pharmacy students. [14][15][16] Therefore, storing pharmacotherapeutic knowledge in combination with the situation in which this knowledge will be applied benefits the speed and quality with which the information is recalled. 17 Therefore, we designed and implemented a self-directed learning to guide pharmacotherapy study which was held in the second semester of the fifth year during the APPE.…”