Utilization of an integrated interactive virtual patient database in a Web-based environment for teaching continuity of care

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Fall 2001 by Fuhrman, L Clifton Jr, Buff, Wayne E, Eaddy, Michael, Dollar, Michael

Innovations in Teaching

Utilization of an Integrated Interactive Virtual Patient Database in a Web-Based Environment for Teaching Continuity of Carel

The project's purpose was to develop students' understanding of pharmaceutical care concepts while enhancing their abilities to utilize information technology. Pharmacy students entering their first year fall semester are assigned a virtual family that is accessed via an Internet server web page. The families, consisting of an adult male, an adult female, a child, and a geriatric patient, were designed by clinical pharmacy practitioners. Problem scenarios, based on each patient's specific disease state, integrate didactic concepts taught during each semester. Each patient has three scenarios a semester for four semesters over a two-year period. Students receive one problem each week at random. The problem must be answered via the web page within 24 hours. Students are given a response to their answer by day's end. Students have been able to access and retrieve information via various computer sources to successfully answer patient problems (97 percent rate correct). Students have also established responsibility in answering questions in a timely manner (99.8 percent answer rate, 97.3 percent on time rate). A seven item five-point Likert questionnaire indicated that students' perceptions of the project were favorable. The project has developed a positive learning experience for the students as they begin to answer patient questions concerning pharmacy care. The students also have become adept with utilizing Internet and computer software information sources.

INTRODUCTION

Educating health professionals for the new century is a challenging endeavor. The constant change in the health care arena imposes demands upon the faculty of health professional institutions. The faculties of these colleges must adapt paradigms that give students not only the knowledge and skills required to provide medical care but also the ability to furnish quality, efficient, and cost-effective care. Health care professionals must also have an explicit understanding of continuity of care and the enormous responsibility to the patients involved in providing this care. The purpose of developing this teaching method was to integrate subject matter from the various pharmacy disciplines and provide an interactive environment for our students to learn, locate information, and develop practice skills, dependability, responsibility and self-confidence.

This course sequence provides experience and training to assist students in developing the following academic and professional characteristics required to provide quality patient care. The objectives of this teaching strategy are:

1. to develop students' understanding of continuity of patient care through a weekly problem scenario sequence over a two-year period;

2. to reinforce didactic material taught each semester through integration of topics and concepts that maintain a direct relationship to patient care;

3. to develop students' evaluative and cognitive learning skills through problem scenarios, which build on patient background data, weekly problem scenarios, and didactic course work over a two-year period;

4. to develop students ability to work and research in an information technological environment utilizing various health professions software packages and the worldwide web;

5. to develop students' oral, written, and computer communication skills through answering patient problem scenarios via a web based environment; and

6. to develop students' professionalism by having them assume responsibility through evaluating patients and answering problem scenarios in a timely manner over a two-year period.

DESCRIPTION OF TEACHING METHOD

The Integrated Pharmacy Laboratory and Recitation (IPLR) is a two-year, four-semester course that provides students with pharmacy practice and clinical skills in the areas of community and institutional pharmacy settings. As part of this course students are assigned a "Virtual Family" at the beginning of the fall semester of their first year. The family consists of an adult male, an adult female, a pediatric, and a geriatric patient. Each patient has a specific disease state that corresponds to topics discussed in the clinical therapeutics courses during the third year of the pharmacy curriculum. Disease states include: Type I and Type II diabetes, hypertension, angina, anemia, oncology, osteoarthritis, asthma (pediatric and adult), epilepsy, congestive heart failure, and, Parkinson's disease, as well as pregnancy, childhood immunizations, and acute illnesses. Patient scenarios are based upon the primary disease state and potential secondary ailments or conditions related to the primary condition. Students are responsible for taking care of their patients' over four semesters (two years). The course while emphasizing dispensing and clinical skills also integrates didactic material covered in the pharmaceutical sciences, pharmacy administration, and therapeutic courses. Students' ability to utilize and integrated information technology and didactic learning to provide continuity of care is evaluated by this teaching modality.