[Development and evaluation of effective learning system for patient interview training as a part of pre-education...

The aim of this study was to develop an effective learning system for patient interview training as a part of a pre-education clinical pharmacy. We devised a learning system for performing pharmaceutical care training and then investigated its usefulness. The learning content was a first interview with a simulated patient (SP). All students were divided into 8 groups of 5. Each student practiced interviewing an SP while 2 other students checked the performance of the interviewer, with roles rotated within each group. Additionally, the teachers also rotated among the groups to check the students. We evaluated the results contained in 55 check sheets used by teachers to evaluate the learning system, 223 check sheets used by students, and 110 check sheets used by the SPs. We found that there was a significantly greater number of students rated as unable to perform by the teachers as compared to those rated by the other students. In addition, the ratings for the items, "other symptom is confirmed" and "the severity and properties of the symptom are confirmed" were similar to the above result. Furthermore, there was a significantly greater number of students rated as unable to perform by the teachers as compared to those rated by the SPs in regard to the item "interviewed using open-ended questions." After the students had performed their first attempt at a first interview, 28.6% were rated as unable to perform by the teachers, which was significantly reduced to 15.8% after the fourth attempt and 10.4% after the fifth attempt. Our results indicate that students must practice the first interview at least 4 times before reaching a level of competency. In addition, our findings suggest that both teachers and SPs should undertake pre-education training in clinical pharmacy practice, as the evaluations were significantly different among the teachers, students, and SPs in the present study.