Perception of Jordanian Pharmacy Students towards Community Pharmacy-Virtual Training Experience during COVID-19 Outbreak

Abstract

Background: Nowadays, it is clear for the whole world that the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic had substantial consequences on various sectors including social, economic and education. Pharmacy education includes community pharmacy practice training, and in many schools, it has been shifted to virtual modality utilizing distance learning. This study aims to assess the perception of pharmacy students towards community pharmacy practice virtual training during the COVID-19 period. Methods: Senior pharmacy students were included in this study. Accredited and certified community pharmacy preceptors were asked to simulate the community pharmacy training and record that as videos, which were evaluated and assessed by expert academics before being delivered to students. A validated online questionnaire was then distributed for the students for self-administration through Microsoft teams to evaluate their perception. Results: A convenience sample (n=109) of senior pharmacy students were recruited. The majority of the participants were females (70.6%) and the median age of students was 22.0 years (IQR= 1). Around half of the participants showed positive perceptions towards the virtual training module and the pharmacy training preceptors. A 46.8% of the students benefited from the virtual training in time management and 43.1% in developing lifelong learning skills. The absence of eye contact during the learning was the most important barrier revealed by the students (52.3%). Half of the students agreed/strongly agreed that combining the virtual and conventional techniques for future training would improve training outcomesConclusion: This is the first study assessing perception towards virtual training in Jordan, which was positive among pharmacy students. Such results could spot the light on the value of hybrid education and training (virtual with actual) in the pharmacy field. However, there is a crucial need for well-designed studied modules to comply with the intended learning outcomes.

Students’ Perspectives of the Economic, Financial, and Psychological Effects of Online Learning and Its Gender Association: A Cross-Sectional Study in Jordanian Universities

“…In our study, 29% of students expressed the need for more interactive lectures, which they felt were lacking in OL. The impact of self-awareness and student engagement in online sessions on the success of OL was also recognized in previous studies [22,23].…”

Experiential pharmacy education in trying times: Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

“…At the faculty of pharmacy of Applied Science Private University in Jordan, senior fifth-year pharmacy students are offered a community pharmacy experience "Training II" course (Barakat et al, 2021).…”

“…Discussion with students, which was led by the course instructor, was completed to achieve the course learning outcomes. The absence of eye contact during the training process was the most relevant barrier reported by students (Barakat et al, 2021). Recorded video tutorials were described as effective and supportive tools for pharmacy education (Farha et al, 2020).…”

Virtual patient simulation in pharmacy education: A systematic review

“…These include diverging (enjoy learning by watching and feeling), assimilating (enjoy learning by watching and thinking), converging (enjoy learning by doing and thinking), and accommodating (enjoy learning by doing and feeling) learning styles (Kolb, 1984). Studies reported that students positively perceived VPS-based training during the COVID-19 pandemic (De Ponti et al, 2020;Barakat et al, 2021). Understanding the different learning models can help design better individualised learning VPS.…”