Designing, delivering and evaluating an educational activity integrating human factors principles and practices into the undergraduate pharmacy curriculum.

Depasquale, Clare; McDonald, Craig; Vosper, Helen

Abstract

High-profilecases worldwide have raised public, professional and political awareness of avoidable health and social care harm. This increased focus on patient safety has been reflected by regulators mandating strengthened patient safety education within undergraduate curricula. This study's aim is to design, deliver and evaluate an educational activity integrating Human Factors approaches into the undergraduate pharmacy curriculum. The activity was developed as a 1.5-hour workshop using a simulated dispensing exercise as the work system and involved group workto complete:(1) Dispensing a Controlled Drug and field observation. (2) Work System Analysis. (3) A Hierarchical Task Analysis of the dispensing process (Stanton,2006). Integration into the curriculum took an iterative approach. The activity was piloted with seven Year-2 student pharmacists; data collection involved pre-/post-workshop surveys, a focus group and staff observation as participants completed the activity. Delivery to ninety-five Year-2 student pharmacists in 2022 followed; this was evaluated through a post-workshop survey and staff observation. A second post-workshop evaluation was completed in 2023 after delivery to seventy-nine Year-2 student pharmacists. Approval was granted by the Robert Gordon University School of Pharmacy & Life Sciences Ethics Review Committee. The pilot provided staff with valuable insight into the acceptability, appropriateness, feasibility and perceived effectiveness of the activity as an educational resource; it was instrumental in establishing optimum group size and highlighting student pharmacists' confidence levels with the topic. In 2022, ninety-one student pharmacists completed the evaluation; 93% (n=85) agreed that completing the activity had changed their understanding of how Human Factors can impact patient safety. In 2023, seventy-four student pharmacists completed the evaluation; 89% (n=66) agreed that completing the activity had enhanced the development of skills that could be used in future practice. The activity can be used to support the development of student pharmacists' Human Factors knowledge, skills and patient safety competencies.

Citation

DEPASQUALE, C., MCDONALD, C. and VOSPER, H. 2023. Designing, delivering and evaluating an educational activity integrating human factors principles and practices into the undergraduate pharmacy curriculum. Presented at the 2023 Pharmacy education conference: enabling prescriber ready education, 11 September 2023, Manchester, UK.

• Presentation Conference Type: Poster
• Conference Name: 2023 Pharmacy education conference: enabling prescriber ready education
• Start Date: Sep 11, 2023
• Acceptance Date: Sep 11, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Sep 11, 2023
• Publication Date: Mar 11, 2024
• Deposit Date: May 13, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: May 27, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.46542/pe.2024.245.133
• Keywords: Curriculum; Human factor; Patient safety; Pharmacy education; Pharmacy practice; Undergraduate pharmacy
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2836043
• Additional Information: The file associated with this output contains the poster presented at the conference and the abstract, published in a special issue of Pharmacy Education, which have been incorporated into a single file on this repository.; ; The abstract was published as:; DEPASQUALE, C., MCDONALD, C. and VOSPER, H. 2023. Designing, delivering and evaluating an educational activity integrating human factors principles and practices into the undergraduate pharmacy curriculum. Pharmacy education [online], 24(5): conference abstracts of the 2023 Pharmacy education conference: enabling prescriber ready education, 11 September 2023, Manchester, UK, pages 14-15. Available from: https://doi.org/10.46542/pe.2024.245.133