Exploring the Impact of a Vicarious Learning Approach on Student Pharmacists’ Professional Identity Formation Using a Simulated Pharmacist–Patient Encounter

Purposefully developed professional identity formation (PIF) learning activities within the didactic curriculum provide crucial groundwork to complement PIF within authentic settings. The aim of this didactic exercise was to explore the impact upon student pharmacists’ PIF after viewing, analyzing, and reflecting upon a simulated pharmacist–patient encounter (PPE). A 12 min role-play video was created, featuring a pharmacist counseling a standardized patient on a new medication regimen; foundational principles of medication safety, health literacy, social determinants of health, empathic communication, and motivational interviewing were included in the counseling, with some aspects intentionally performed well, others in need of improvement. Also included were the patient’s varied reactions to the counseling. Students assumed the observer role and learned vicariously through viewing the PPE. Postactivity debriefs included justifying a foundational principle performed well by the pharmacist, and another in need of improvement, and a self-reflection essay expressing the impact of viewing the PPE on their PIF, from which extracts were thematically analyzed for impact. The main themes of the impact included increased awareness of counseling techniques, patient-friendly medical jargon, patient perspectives/empathy, positive and negative pharmacist role-modeling, and the value of the observer role. This PPE exercise enhanced PIF in terms of students thinking, acting, and feeling like a pharmacist, based on students’ self-reflections, which most often referenced effective pharmacist–patient communication and enacting optimal patient care.