Objectives:
This pilot study was designed to evaluate the impact of a pre-rotation
workshop (PRW) on pharmacy students’ clinical skills and preparation
for clinical Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPE) involving
direct patient care.
Methods: Randomized controlled trial of an educational intervention
with Institutional Review Board approval. PRW activities designed
to simulate rotation activities around five competencies, patient
charts, medication histories, SOAP notes, patient presentations,
and professionalism. Endpoints were evaluated using clinical rotation
preceptors’ evaluation of performance and students’ performance
on objective structured clinical exams (OSCE).
Results: Eight fourth-year students and eight GPA matched controls
(20% of the total class) were selected to voluntarily participate.
The PRW demonstrated a positive impact on students’ clinical skills
and preparation for rotations by improving OSCE performance. However,
no significant differences were found between groups when comparing
preceptor evaluations of skills on rotations. These results are
limited by the small sample size, potential OSCE “test-wiseness”
effects, lack of OSCE evaluator blinding to study groups, potential
case specificity effects due to the limited number of cases used
on the OSCE and possible lack of sensitivity of the rotation evaluation
tool to capture true differences among the experimental and control
group participants.
Conclusion: The PRW was successful at advancing students’ clinical
skills and preparation for rotations and may be considered as
a tool to help bridge didactic to clinical experiences in the
Pharm.D. curriculum.
