(137) The development and evaluation of an activity-based Pharmacy Informatics and Medication Safety course

Objective : To evaluate the impact of developing a Pharmacy Informatics and Medication Safety (IMS) course for third-year pharmacy students.

Methods: A required IMS course was developed utilizing team-based and active learning strategies for third-year pharmacy students at the University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy. Classes were held weekly, covering topics like fundamentals of informatics, the medication use process, healthcare data management, and medication safety. Activities included TikTok®, games, individual and team-readiness assurance tests, case studies, and real-world examples. Students baseline knowledge and attitudes regarding IMS were assessed through a pre- and post-course questionnaire. Matched survey responses were gathered as part of an IRB approved study. Data was analyzed using SPSS and descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon signed rank tests or McNemar tests as appropriate.

Results: Seventy-eight third-year student pharmacists participated in this research. Compared to the start of the course, students correctly described health informatics (8% vs 85%; p<.001) and how health informatics improves patient care (14% vs 74%; p<.001). Students showed improvement in correctly defining the role of informatics pharmacists (17% vs 65%; p<.001) and medication safety officers (29% vs 63%; p<.001) in the hospital setting. Compared to the start of class, most students identified that informatics was either somewhat important or extremely important to their success as a pharmacist (69% vs 79%; p=.070).

Conclusions: The IMS course increased student knowledge on informatics and medication safety including the ability to define health informatics and its role in health system pharmacy.