Multi-site heart disease risk assessment service provided by pharmacy students

To evaluate a pharmacy student service focused on patient coronary heart disease (CHD) risk assessment.

Fourth-year pharmacy students offered a CHD risk assessment service at 5 physicians' offices as part of ambulatory care advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE). Patient acceptance of the service was assessed using a satisfaction survey instrument.

Fifty-seven students educated 311 patients about CHD risk. Of the 258 patients who completed the satisfaction survey, 245 (95%) reported that the service was helpful in understanding CHD risk, and 79 (31%) learned of a personal CHD risk factor of which they were not previously aware. Student knowledge was assessed using a multiple-choice pretest and posttest focused on CHD knowledge recall. Students' test scores improved from pretest to posttest (mean 51.6 % +/- 1.1 vs. 64. 8% +/- 1.0. respectively; p = 0.01).

A CHD risk assessment service provided by APPE students in ambulatory care settings was educational for both students and patients.