An Innovative Teaching Strategy for the Outpatient Clerkship Program at Jordan University Hospital A Comprehensive Approach to Faculty Development Program

Abstract:

Introduction and purpose: As regular and well-structured clerkship program is needed to graduate qualified pharmacists in regard to drug knowledge and clinical skills our study was conducted in order to describe an innovative educational strategy for the outpatient clerkship and to improve the quality of clinical education in undergraduate doctor of pharmacy program. Method: Twenty one pharm D students were asked to fill an 18-questions questionnaire which designed to evaluate the course. The questionnaire used a 5-level Likert item to meet students’ response to each question ranging from 1- “strongly agree” to 5- “strongly disagree”. The pharmacy training was also evaluated through pharmacist evaluation (in each of the training pharmacies) for the course. Results: All students responded to the questionnaire (response rate 100%). Students were highly satisfied about the helpfulness of the course and the positive impact of the course on their clinical skills. Students were also highly satisfied about the clarity of the clerkship, clinic training and the type of homework, but they were less satisfied regarding the course material. Students showed a good satisfaction regarding the hands-on activities during the clerkship Finally, students were satisfied regarding the method of teaching and student’s performance assessment method, whereas they show a poor satisfaction regarding the time distribution during the clerkship and most of them stated that the clerkship need more than 3 weeks. Discussion: Our program approach produced a positive outcome and satisfaction from the students regarding the most issues related clerkship evaluation. Therefore, this new teaching program could be continued and implemented in the future clerkship as a method for outpatient clerkship teaching.

Key words: Pharmacy education, Faculty development, Curriculum development, Outpatient clerkship, Pharm D.