(144) Evaluating the Alignment of Patient Case Characteristics in a Practice Ready Curriculum with State Demographics

Objective : To evaluate the consistency of patient cases in a PharmD curriculum with state population demographics.

Methods: As a land-grant institution, our mission is to educate students to care for the patients of our state. The Practice Ready Curriculum (PRC) was designed to include the common diseases of patients in the state. Patient cases utilized in all P1-P3 year core courses (2022/2023) were reviewed. Characteristics were documented and compared to the 2020 Census and 2021 CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System state demographics.

Results: Most PRC patient cases (n=519) listed name or initials (75%), age (90%), and sex (91%). Adult cases accounted for 89%, above the state adult population (78%). The range was 0.02 to 95 years of age. Cases were 43.1% female, 8.3% lower than the state estimate of 51.4%. Two cases included transgender patients. Cases with race and ethnic data (23%) misrepresented the state data of White 61.6% (-4.8%), Hispanic 18.7% (-14.2%), Black 12.4% (+23.2%), and Asian 6% (-1.5%). Social history primarily consisted of tobacco (21.7%) and alcohol use (19.3%) and insurance (13.2%). The 2021 state data showed 40.3% of adults had at least one drink in the past 30 days and 17.2% were current smokers versus 61.2% and 44.8% of cases, respectively. BMIs were provided or calculated in 137 cases including 0.7% underweight, 40.1% normal, 24.1% overweight, and 32.4% obese which did not align with state data of 1.8%, 26.4%, 31.9%, and 39.9%, respectively. Education, occupation, diet, exercise, and living situation were less commonly stated in cases.

Conclusions: A curricular evaluation determined the demographics of the PRC cases could be more representative of the state population, providing an opportunity for curricular improvement in support College’s mission.