Assessing pharmacy students' knowledge and perceptions of urine drug testing following a pharmacy skills laboratory

Urine drug tests (UDTs) are commonly used in the healthcare setting to monitor adherence, abuse, and diversion of controlled substances. The goal of our study was to assess the knowledge and perceptions of third-year pharmacy students on UDTs following an educational experience.

Third-year pharmacy students completed pre- and post-questionnaires following a skills laboratory focused on the use of UDTs in clinical settings. The 34-item questionnaires consisted of three domains: demographics, knowledge regarding UDTs, and personal perceptions of UDTs. A pre-lab teaching podcast was assigned prior to the laboratory session, and two clinical cases were discussed during the live UDT segment. Descriptive statistics were used to assess demographics, and changes in knowledge and perceptions of UDTs were evaluated using chi-square and Mann-Whitney U, respectively, with an a priori alpha of 0.05.

One hundred twenty students were included in the analysis. Students in the laboratory were predominately female (n = 72, 60%), Caucasian (n = 84, 70%), and had no prior training with UDTs (n = 104, 86.7%). Student knowledge of UDT interpretation significantly increased from 57% to 71% (four and five correct answers out of seven, respectively). Confidence interpreting UDTs and answering questions related to UDTs also increased significantly. Students felt the laboratory experience was valuable, with 84.2% agreeing or strongly agreeing.

Educational programming focused on UDTs improves student confidence interpreting results and knowledge related to the use of UDTs.