(373) Evaluation of Near-Peer Teacher Experience within Pharmacy Skills Laboratories

Trainee Category: Resident

Objective : Near-peer teaching incorporates two learners, one being at least one year senior in their education. The senior learner is designated the near-peer teacher (NPT), and the junior learner is designated the near-peer learner (NPL). The benefits of near-peer teaching in pharmacy skills lab setting may include less anxiety for students when being evaluated and taught by a near-peer, and more teaching and mentorship opportunities for NPTs. What remains unclear in current research is best practices in regards to incorporating NPTs into pharmacy skills lab. The purpose of this study is to describe the experiences and impact of skills-based near-peer activities on NPTs.

Methods: This Purdue University IRB approved survey-based study will be conducted using Qualtrics (Qualtrics, Provo, UT) to administer a multi-item survey that will be sent to each pharmacy skills laboratory coordinator in the Big10 Academic Alliance to then distribute to participants in pharmacy skills laboratory that acted as NPTs during the fall semester of 2022. The NPTs identified will be Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) students, pharmacy residents, and pharmacy fellows. No personal or identifying data will be collected or stored. Participants will be questioned on their demographics and experiences with teaching in the skills lab setting. Data will be analyzed primarily using descriptive statistics.

Results: Data collection and analysis is currently ongoing with the initial results and analysis expected to be presented in April 2023.

Conclusions: With the results of the survey, the authors hope to identify best practices when incorporating NPTs in the pharmacy skills lab setting.