Restructuring the inpatient advanced pharmacy practice experience to reduce the risk of contracting coronavirus disease 2019: Lessons from Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Introduction: On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization announced the rapidly spreading epidemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Almost all countries started to take proactive precautionary measures to reduce the risk of contracting the virus. The education sector, including pharmacy education, has been drastically impacted by this pandemic. During the outbreak, many hospitals instructed the health profession's schools to restrict or prevent the presence of their students and interns in their hospitals in an effort to limit the spread of the virus.Objectives: Constraining the presence of interns in the affiliated hospital has impacted the integrity of delivering the learning outcomes of each clinical rotation. In this paper, we present the experience of four faculty preceptors in restructuring the advanced pharmacy practice experience in different clinical settings, including critical care, infectious diseases, cardiology, and internal medicine, in order to reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19 at a large academic medical institution in Saudi Arabia. Conclusion:We believe that this experience could provide guidance and insights for other pharmacy schools dealing with this issue during this global pandemic.

A Virtual Community Pharmacy Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) in Response to COVID-19

“…Previous studies have demonstrated success using video conferencing and online modalities in APPE delivery (Eiland et al, 2018). Other institutions and other pharmacy practice settings have described their transition to online experiential platforms with direct daily videoconference interactions which substituted for the direct daily face-to-face interactions that would have otherwise been assessed during an APPE rotation outside of a pandemic situation (Badreldin et al, 2020). Similarly, topic discussions, drug information questions, and reviewing COVID-19 updates appeared in other virtual APPEs while a common drawback was the absence of direct patient care and additional interprofessional healthcare provider interaction (Badreldin et al, 2020), Vol.…”

Ambulatory care practice in the COVID‐19 era: Redesigning clinical services and experiential learning

“…One effective approach to modifying inpatient APPE rotations was described in the literature. Pharmacist preceptors assessed students virtually as they conducted modified rotational activities, such as presenting on de‐identified patients, answering drug information questions, and drafting therapeutic protocols 48 . There is a paucity of published literature providing guidance for the training of students in the ambulatory care practice during a pandemic.…”

Forging ahead from adaptations of teaching during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Perspectives from multiple pharmacy programs

“…While examples of clinician telehealth exist in the literature, the few extant examples of experiential education exist mostly in psychology 37,38,42‐45 . Within psychology, remote supervision has been noted to help supervisees stay on task 40 .…”

“…One study by Badowski et al describe an APPE in the provision of telemedicine to individuals with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) within a state correctional system designed to expose learners to telemedicine 44 . In addition, Badreldin et al describe a transition to videoconferenced APPE in Saudi Arabia because of COVID‐19 for inpatient experiences 42 . Together, this literature of patient care in experiential education suggests that these modalities allow the pharmacist to use their abilities and learner perceived quality of care is unchanged 43,44 .…”

“…Together, this literature of patient care in experiential education suggests that these modalities allow the pharmacist to use their abilities and learner perceived quality of care is unchanged 43,44 . Furthermore, remote activities met the knowledge, cognitive skills, communication, interprofessional education, and affective domains of the ACPE Standards 42 . The Pharmacy Informatics Academy has created a database of virtual APPE available to students needing APPE for graduation 46…”