Design and Evaluation of Scholarship and Research Orientation Sessions in Academic Pharmacy Practice Experiences

OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the efficacy of educating academic Advance Pharmacy Practice Experiential (APPE) students on scholarship and research (S&R). We hypothesized that academic APPE students gain more knowledge in scholarship and research in comparison to non-academic APPE students. METHODS: As a component of academic APPE rotation, all academic APPE students assigned by the office of experiential education per year (the intervention group) (n = 11) attended S&R sessions during the first week of their academic APPE rotation. Student volunteers from the same graduating class were recruited as the control group (n = 12). However, 1 student from the intervention group and 2 students from the control group were excluded from the analysis, leaving 10 students from each group. These sessions were taken in small groups of 1 to 3 once in their assigned rotation. S&R sessions included many topics that were based on a S&R manual. Upon completion of the sessions, a hard copy of a 10-question knowledge-based quiz was given to both groups at the same time. APPE students’ knowledge about S&R were assessed via grading the quiz. The anonymity of the quiz was maintained by requesting students only to mention whether they are from intervention group or controlled group. RESULTS: While control group averaged 49% ± 4.58 on the quiz, the intervention group averaged 71.5% ± 5.77. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software. Based on independent sample t-test, students who took the S&R session show significant increase in their quiz score. CONCLUSION: Compared to the control group, S&R sessions helped academic APPE students to gain knowledge on S&R. The students also perceived that S&R sessions increased their interest in S&R.