Women's health promotion within a community advanced pharmacy practice experience

To establish low-cost easily conducted health promotion interventions for advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) students in community pharmacy settings that would increase women's awareness about health issues using Food and Drug Administration (FDA) educational materials.

Students distributed fact sheets on medication use, heart disease, and diabetes to women over 45 years of age at 6 community pharmacy APPE sites. Interventions completed were either personal medication records (PMR) to identify medication-related problems (MRP) or heart health screenings followed by completion of an anonymous patient satisfaction survey instrument.

Over 1500 fact sheets were distributed. Fifty-eight women (age 61 +/- 15 years) completed PMRs, which identified 57 MRPs in 42 patients. Twenty-four women indicated the screening was "useful/very useful" for increasing medication understanding. Sixty-three women completed heart health screenings. Thirty-one of the 40 who completed the survey instrument indicated the screening was "useful/very useful" for learning heart disease risk.

Community pharmacy APPE students interventions identified MRPs and patients at risk for heart disease. These health promotion interventions enhanced women's awareness of these topics while guiding students to achieve the desired curricular outcomes.