Improvement of student confidence and competence through a self-care skills multi-course integration

Our goal was to evaluate the impact of integrating self-care concepts in class, a pharmacy practice laboratory, and an introductory pharmacy practice experience on student confidence and competence in self-care counseling.

Two cohorts of first-year professional pharmacy students were taught self-care topics using team-based learning (TBL) pedagogy. Students then applied their knowledge in two different settings: a patient-counseling simulation in a pharmacy practice laboratory and a real patient encounter at a pharmacy practice site. Students were evaluated on their performance at both settings using a validated rubric as well as on their self-reported confidence before and after the classroom engagement and after the counseling practice. Wilcoxon signed-rank and Friedman tests were used to examine pre-post changes and changes across all three assessments.

Reported student confidence levels rose after classroom learning and again after the real patient encounter. Student improvement was mirrored in rubric scores from the pharmacy practice laboratory simulation as well as from the pharmacy practice site encounter.

This research showed that integration of self-care topics across three different settings improved student confidence and competence in self-care counseling, demonstrating the value of providing multiple opportunities for students to apply knowledge and practice skills. Further research is needed to apply this longitudinal structure of learning to other classes in the pharmacy curriculum.