(171) Learning the Ropes of Inpatient Order Verification: Will They Sink or Swim?

Objective : To evaluate the effectiveness of an educational series on preparing students to review pending inpatient medication orders and accurately identify medication-related problems utilizing EHR technology.

Methods: Third year pharmacy students were enrolled in a required skills-based laboratory course during fall semester 2022. A series was designed to simulate the tasks an inpatient pharmacist completes when reviewing pending medication orders. Students completed a pre-assessment followed by 5 hours of instruction dispersed over 3 weeks of lab. Following the series, students completed a post-assessment and grades were reviewed. For both the pre- and post-assessments, students completed a patient chart review in a mock EHR system with two planned problems imbedded within five pending orders. Students completed a post-series survey to assess their perceived preparedness and confidence associated with these skills. The paired t-test and Spearman tests were conducted to determine statistical significance.

Results: A total of 49 (100%) completed the pre- and post-series assessments resulting in mean scores of 72.4% and 89.4%, respectively. Comparison of pre- and post-series assessment scores were statistically significant (p <.001). A total of 47 students (96%) completed the post-series survey. Analysis of survey results found a median score of 4 for each question on a Likert-scale of 1 to 5 indicating students felt prepared and confident when reviewing orders. The Spearman calculation was conducted to identify any potential association between student survey results and the post-series assessment scores. The association (rs=.22) between survey results and assessment scores were not considered statistically significant (p=.142).

Conclusions: Following an in-depth skills lab series mimicking the tasks an inpatient pharmacist completes when reviewing pending medication orders, a statistically significant increase in mean assessment scores was identified.