Use of an Audience Response System to Introduce an Anticoagulation Guide to Physicians, Pharmacists, and Pharmacy Students

Abstract

Objectives. To implement an anticoagulation guide (AG) and measure understanding with an audience response system (ARS). Secondly, to describe prescribing practices following AG implementation and survey pharmacy students' opinions of the ARS. Methods. Medical and pharmacy residents, pharmacy students, and clinical staff pharmacists responded to 7 case-based multiple-choice questions related to anticoagulation with the ARS before and after an educational intervention. Following AG implementation, a retrospective medical record review measured prescriber adherence to the guide's warfarin initiation protocol (target adherence was 75%). A survey was administered to pharmacy students via the ARS.Results. There were significant increases in the number of preferred responses given by physicians, pharmacists, and pharmacy students on an examination administered using an ARS after completing the educational intervention. Prescriber adherence to the warfarin initiation protocol was noted in 22 of 43 (51%) of the medical records reviewed post-intervention. Conclusion. Use of an ARS improved understanding of the anticoagulation guide as evident by a significant increase in preferred responses on the post-education examination. A majority of pharmacy students surveyed responded that the ARS improved lecture involvement and understanding. However, target prescriber adherence to the warfarin initiation protocol was not achieved.

An Empirical Study of Neural Network-Based Audience Response Technology in a Human Anatomy Course for Pharmacy Students

“…Our findings support other pharmacy education studies that describe positive student outcomes associated with student engagement [39][40][41][42][43][44][45] and performance [3,40,46,42,43] in ARS based learning. In fact, ARS is one of the most commonly used active learning strategies in US Colleges and Schools of Pharmacy [4].…”

“…The majority of the students in our survey also reported that the i-SIDRA system promoted the clarification and understanding of concepts (median: 5). These findings are in agreement with those of other studies which report the ability of ARSs to enhance understanding of the material [46,42].…”

“…The survey results showed that i-SIDRA encouraged active learning and helped the students maintain attention, thus improving lecture involvement as reported in previous studies [7,39,46,42,43].…”

An Audience Response System Strategy to Improve Student Motivation, Attention, and Feedback

“…4 Most participants in an anticoagulation guide session agreed that ARS utilization increased their involvement in the presentation and understanding of its content. 5 Students and instructors in a dual-campus environment found that an ARS increased active learning, revealed student comprehension, and helped instructors identify course concepts that students misunderstood. 6 Issues with ARS usage have included faculty members' concerns regarding academic integrity and students' concerns over technical issues that could negatively affect grades.…”

Creation of Medicinal Chemistry Learning Communities Through Enhanced Technology and Interdisciplinary Collaboration

“…[13][14][15][16] Three polling questions per 50-minute class session spaced every 15 minutes appeared optimal. Student interest in performing well was also enhanced if points were awarded for correct responses.…”