Performance and Perceptions

Abstract

Background: Pharmacy education standards highlight the importance of effective communication skills and the use of technology to provide patient care. As technology evolves, pharmacists have opportunities to communicate in different and broader ways. Objective: The objectives of this study were 3-fold: to evaluate student ability to counsel via telepharmacy, to determine if there is a difference in students' abilities to counsel face-to-face or via telepharmacy, and to determine students' perceptions regarding patient consultation via telepharmacy. Methods: Professional pharmacy students completed a pharmaceutical care laboratory activity focused on communication via telepharmacy. Comparisons were made between students' ability to provide patient consultation via telepharmacy and face-to-face utilizing a facultydeveloped rubric. Students also completed a questionnaire on their perception of utilizing telepharmacy technology to provide patient consultation. Results: Eighty-two second-year professional pharmacy students participated in the study. Results showed students are able to successfully provide patient consultation via telepharmacy without prior practice; however, there was a statistically significant difference between students' ability to counsel face-to-face and via telepharmacy (P < .001). Overall, students were more successful at providing face-to-face consultation than via telepharmacy, and students who were first assessed on their ability to counsel face-to-face perceived a greater difference between telepharmacy and face-to-face consultation (P < .05). Conclusion: Student-perceived differences between the 2 means of consultation and demonstrated a difference in their ability to counsel via telepharmacy and face-to-face. It appears that, when evaluating the need to teach professional pharmacy students how to provide patient consultation via telepharmacy, additional exposure to telepharmacy technology could be beneficial by enhancing student comfort and proficiency.

Remote OSCE Experience: What First Year Pharmacy Students Liked, Learned, and Suggested for Future Implementations

“…A brief literature search using the key words "telehealth" and "OSCE" and/or "student perceptions of telehealth OSCE" revealed a sparsity of information related to telehealth simulations or OSCEs for pharmacy learners. Skoy and colleagues revealed no difference between students' abilities to successfully provide medication consultation to patients between face-to-face and telehealth encounters [7]. However, students in this study agreed that there were differences in "difficulty, stress, interpreting patient cues, and in maintaining eye contact and tone of voice between the two means of consultation" [7].…”

“…In particular, students identified non-verbal cues as essential for proper interaction in a patient encounter yet struggled to read these cues in the remote setting. Skoy et al explored the comparison of virtual and face-to-face patient encounters and found that students identified differences in "interpreting patient cues, and in maintaining eye contact and tone of voice between the two means of consultation" [7]. To continue remote OSCEs in the future, students may require support developing their verbal and non-verbal communication skills to effectively provide patient care.…”

“…Skoy and colleagues revealed no difference between students' abilities to successfully provide medication consultation to patients between face-to-face and telehealth encounters [7]. However, students in this study agreed that there were differences in "difficulty, stress, interpreting patient cues, and in maintaining eye contact and tone of voice between the two means of consultation" [7]. Recently, VanLangen and colleagues found virtual skills-based assessments to be an appropriate mechanism to assess student communication skills; however, they did not observe a strong preference for virtual skills-based assessments in the future [8].…”

Pros and cons of counselling at online-only pharmacies – a mixed methods case study.

“…Some customers prefer direct interaction with health professionals when addressing their need for medical information [16,18]. However, Skoy et al, when examining pharmacy students' ability to advise customers through telepharmacy solutions, concluded that the students were successful in providing advice through telepharmacy [25].…”

Knowledge, perception, and willingness to provide telepharmacy services among pharmacy students: a multicenter cross-sectional study in Indonesia

“…Therefore, pharmacists may experience difficulty in integrating clinical skills used for in-person counseling with the virtual environment [ 11 ] because existing skills and resources are often set up to support face-to-face counseling. Without sufficient telepharmacy training, pharmacy students were reported to be more successful at providing face-to-face consultation than via telepharmacy [ 16 ].…”