The use of patient instructors to teach interviewing skills

A program which utilizes patient instructors (PI) to teach and evaluate interviewing skills of pharmacy students is described. The PIs were programmed with a history of either hypertension, chronic pulmonary disease, or congestive heart failure. Content areas within each history included past and present drug therapy, adverse drug reactions, drug interactions, as well as socioeconomic and other factors affecting therapy. The interviews were done with small groups of students and followed by PI evaluation of interview content and process. The majority of students felt the experience helped them assess and improve their interviewing skills and agreed the program should continue. The advantages of utilizing PIs to teach interviewing skills are discussed.