Assistant Clinical Professor University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Objective : Person-centered practice supports a partnership between patient and providers grounded in trust and respect of each other’s expertise. A need was identified to further develop person-centered care skills in pharmacy students to facilitate chronic disease management and building patient’s self-efficacy. We aimed to evaluate the delivery of a workshop focused on teaching person-centered care, and health behaviour change support strategies and assess the impact on student learning including understanding and confidence in applying a systematic approach, and their readiness to integrate these skills to change their practice.
Methods: The HealthChange® Methodology workshop was adapted for delivery to pharmacy students and integrated into a year 3 patient care skills course. The workshop was delivered to three different cohorts of students (Virtually Fall 2020 and 2021, in-person 2022). A post-workshop questionnaire was administered each year to all participating students(n=384). The questionnaire evaluated the delivery of the workshop, and assessed students’ understanding of the practice principles, confidence, and readiness to integrate the skills into their practice. Themes related to student’s goals for practice change were also explored.
Results: Two hundred fifty seven students (67%) responded to the questionnaire. Students indicated a positive understanding of how the practice principles can guide their pharmacy practice and increased confidence in applying skills. Eighty-three percent of students were ready to make a goal to support application of person-centered care. Student-identified goals included use of person-centered communication techniques, assessing patients for readiness and confidence, and health behaviour change support strategies.
Conclusions: This innovation provided an important opportunity to engage students in developing their person-centered care skills and allow a focus for application in future skills labs.
