Developing Teaching Skills during the Pharmacy Practice Residency Program: RESULTS part 2
Survey of Current BC Residency Coordinators
The response rate for the survey of coordinators of BC residency programs was 100% (8/8). The demographic characteristics of the respondents are presented in Table 3.
In describing the teaching and precepting conducted at their institutions, 3 (38%) of the coordinators stated that in some clinical rotations, the resident typically trained in the same clinical area and under the guidance of the same preceptor as another pharmacy trainee (e.g., an undergraduate student). Six (75%) of the coordinators noted that undergraduate students were invited (occasionally or always) to join in learning sessions conducted for residents. The coordinators felt that having students at different levels of training and knowledge participate in joint learning sessions contributes to a positive learning environment, is conducive to peer teaching, and helps to minimize the time required for teaching (by avoiding multiple sessions). Two coordinators felt that differences in learning needs, learning objectives, and knowledge base between undergraduate students and residents would hinder learning if learning sessions included both residents and students.
To determine coordinators’ perceptions of the relative importance of the various skills that residents acquire during the program (patient care, administration, research, drug distribution, and teaching), they were asked to rank them from 1 (most important) to 5 (leastimportant) in the same manner as the residency graduates. Respondents identified patient care skills as most important, followed by (in descending order of importance) drug distribution, research, teaching, and administrative skills.
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Table 3. Demographic Characteristics of 8 Respondents to a Survey of Coordinators of British Columbia Residency Programs in 2004
Characteristic No. (%) of Respondents
Years of experience as coordinator
< 2 2 (25) 3-5 2 (25) 6-10 2 (25) > 11 2 (25) Type of institution
Teaching hospital 6 (75)
Nonteaching hospital 2 (25) Type of students
Undergraduate 8 (100)
Doctor of pharmacy 7 (88)
Other 5 (62)
Telephone Survey of Other Canadian Residency Coordinators
Six (24%) of the 25 coordinators of accredited Canadian pharmacy residency programs who were surveyed reported that a teaching or precepting activity was included in their programs. Among the 19 coordinators (76%) who reported that their programs did not include such experience, 4 noted that they would like to do so or saw a need to address such skills in their programs, but some were unsure of how this would be done. In one case, the faculty of pharmacy required students to be under the guidance of “experienced preceptors”, but according to programcriteria, residents in the program were deemed unqualified to fulfill this role. Three coordinators reported that their programs had offered teaching or precepting opportunities for residents in the past but no longer did so; in these cases, the concern was the more urgent need to increase residents’ exposure to patient care activities in the form of clinical rotations rather than spending time on other types of activities. kamagra jelly uk
The nature, structure, and duration of the teaching and precepting activities varied widely across the 6 programs that addressed these skills. A total of 3 programs had either a mandatory rotation (2 programs) or an elective rotation (1 program) during which the resident would precept a pharmacy undergraduate student. There were many similarities in how these 3 programs structured their rotations, which ranged from 3 to 4 weeks in length. The goals for the rotations were similar and focused mainly on developing the skills necessary to precept, teach, and mentor an undergraduate student during the institutional rotation. Activities included reviewing the objectives and outcomes specified by the relevant faculty of pharmacy, developing a schedule for the student, creating specific learning objectives, assigning patient-specific duties to the student, providing feedback to the student, and maintaining records of precepting activities. Before the start of the rotation, the resident was required to discuss with his or her own pharmacist preceptor the specific skills that were to be developed, the learning activities that would be conducted to address these skills, and the resources that would be utilized. The resident was also asked to plan for the relationship between student and resident (as acting preceptor) in terms of time management, process for identifying student progress, and methods for motivating and encouraging the student. In preparation for the rotation, the resident was given reading materials from the faculty of pharmacy and/or attended a local preceptor workshop. The resident was expected to continue providing pharmaceutical care to assigned patients while in the preceptor role. The evaluation of the resident’s performance during the rotation was based on feedback from the student and the pharmacist preceptor who oversaw the rotation. All 3 programs also required the resident to complete a self-assessment of their performance as preceptors.
An opportunity to teach undergraduate students or community pharmacists was offered routinely to residents in 4 of the 6 programs that incorporated a teaching or precepting activity, in the form of an elective activity (3 programs), a mandatory activity (1 program), or an activity that would occur “whenever possible” (1 program). The elective opportunities involved teaching a drug-related topic to undergraduate students in pharmacy, medicine, nursing, or respiratory therapy. In the program where a teaching experience was mandatory, the resident had to plan, organize, and deliver an accredited continuing education session for community pharmacists. All program coordinators stated that the teaching experiences had always been very well received by the residents.
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The types of training offered to residents in preparation for the activities described above included local preceptor workshops, reading materials on teaching and learning styles and the development of learning objectives, materials developed by local faculty for use in training preceptors, and assistance from the institution’s education department.
