(115) Promoting APPE-Readiness and Critical Thinking with Verbal Justification of Treatment Recommendations for Patient Cases

Objective : To (1) implement a verbal justification component to patient cases to prepare students for advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPE) and (2) assess student perceptions of the activities.

Methods: Students complete six written cases as part of practicum requirements in the third professional year. For each case, students use a simulated electronic health record to work through the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process and develop patient treatment plans. Following each case, students are given five minutes to verbally justify their recommendation using appropriate medical terminology. A 3-point rubric is used to assess accuracy of the justification and appropriateness of medical terminology. Post-surveys were provided after each case to elicit student perceptions. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Kruskal-Wallis test for comparisons across all six cases.

Results: Forty-five students completed all six activities, and 34 (75.6%) completed all post-surveys. Average scores ranged from 2.56 to 2.848 (scale 0-3), p < 0.001, with scores for gastroenterology and oncology cases being lower than other subjects. Perceived comfort in explaining recommendations ranged from 6.6–8.4 (scale of 1-10 with 1=uncomfortable and 10=comfortable), p< 0.0006, with perceived comfort being lower in oncology. Using the same scale, comfort in using medical terminology was relatively high but did not vary across cases, ranging from 7.217–8.243, p=0.44.

Conclusions: These activities align with the Curricular Outcomes and Entrustable Patient Activities by requiring the application of foundational knowledge to clinical recommendations, using critical thinking skills, communicating with simulated preceptors and providing patient-centered care. Scores and perceived comfort in explaining recommendations and using medical terminology were high, with some decrease in an oncology case. Similar activities can be implemented to improve student comfort and promote APPE-readiness.