Nursing students’ experiences of service-learning at community and hospital pharmacies in Belize: Pedagogical implications for nursing pharmacology

Abstract

Objectives Many students seem to find pharmacology learning very challenging due to the complexity and variety of drugs they have to study. The number of drugs the students have to learn, the duration of time to learn the medications, and the evolving nature of diseases demanded learning beyond the classroom walls. This study explored and described nursing students’ experiences in community and hospital-based pharmacy practice sites during their service-learning and its implications for pharmacology pedagogical practices. Methods Kolb’s learning theory provided the framework to explore nursing students’ 48-hour service-learning experiences at community/hospital-based pharmacies in Belize and its implications for pharmacology pedagogy. The study utilized two qualitative approaches, reflective journals and focus group interviews, to collect data from 46 second-year nursing students. NVivo software and coding schemes were employed to analyze the data from the interviews and reflective journals. Results Students reported learning medications, integrating classroom pharmacological knowledge at pharmacy practice sites, acquiring and enhancing communication skills, interpreting prescriptions, dispensing medications, drug calculations, taking inventory, doing vital signs, and patient education. In addition, students reported experiencing inter-professional relationships as healthcare team members. Anxiety was a major challenge experienced by many students at the beginning of the service-learning experience. Conclusions This study highlights the importance of experiential learning of pharmacology amongst second year nursing students, offering the opportunity to inform and support pharmacotherapeutics educators in designing strategies for more effective teaching of medications to nursing students. It also supports the addition of pharmacy placements to the nursing curriculum’ as it shows that nursing students can learn medications, skills, and teamwork from experiential pharmacy site posting. Combining classroom instruction with pharmacy experiential service learning might be an effective complement for teaching nursing pharmacology.

Teaching the physiology of the human body in non-formal spaces: pilot experience of a Service-Learning methodology and the interaction between students of different educational levels

“…Due to the potential benefits of this “learning by doing” or “learning through teaching” methodology, the American Psychological Association (APA) recommended, in 2010, the engagement of undergraduate students in experiences that contribute to applying what they learn, such as volunteer activities and Service-Learning ( Halpern, 2010 ). In fact, several studies describe how significant learning experiences have been successfully developed undertaken with Medicine and Nursing students in the field of physiology, involving a very specific issue such as kidney disease ( Reddix, 2023 ), pharmacology ( Husaini et al, 2022 ), the physiology of drug addiction ( Lichtenberg et al, 2020 ) and the promotion of healthy habits ( Glòria et al, 2022 ). These activities, consisted in the development of lessons and demonstrations, aiming to enhance the interest and understanding of the students on health issues and increase their knowledge and their communication skills, among others.…”