Assessing student confidence in interprofessional communication during primary care advanced pharmacy practice...

Students must have experience communicating and interacting with healthcare professionals throughout pharmacy school curricula to effectively develop interprofessional communication abilities and confidence. This study's purpose was to assess student confidence in interprofessional communication utilizing a rubric and checklist inspired by the situation-background-assessment-recommendation (SBAR) technique throughout five-week primary care advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs).

A six-item rubric was created for student self-evaluation of interprofessional communication throughout their APPE. Students completed the rubric twice to evaluate change in confidence. Additionally, a pre-post rotation survey was developed to assess students' comfort level rounding with healthcare professionals and interacting/intervening with other healthcare professionals to address a medication-related problem. A paired t-test was used to evaluate changes in perceived student confidence in rubric self-evaluations and pre- and post-APPE surveys.

From May 2017 to April 2019, 93 students completed primary care APPEs with faculty authors, and 181 encounters were self-evaluated using the rubric. Forty-eight students completed all rubric sections twice; their mean self-evaluation score increased significantly from 15.25/18 to 17.10/18 (P < .001). Self-evaluation scores increased significantly on all rubric sections (P < .05) except professional language (P = .133). Student comfort level rounding with healthcare professionals and interacting/intervening with healthcare professionals to address a medication-related problem increased significantly (P < .001).

Interprofessional communication practice, preceptor observations and feedback, and utilization of an interprofessional SBAR-inspired communication rubric contributed to improved student confidence in making patient care recommendations to physicians.