Students' knowledge and perceptions of social determinants of health utilizing interactive computer simulation-based...

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Education
• Health Sciences
• Medical Simulation

Background:

• Social determinants of health (SDoH) significantly impact patient outcomes.
• Integrating SDoH into pharmacy curricula is crucial for developing competent healthcare professionals.
• Traditional teaching methods may not fully capture the complexity of SDoH in clinical practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of computer simulations as a supplementary educational tool for teaching SDoH to first-year pharmacy students.
• To assess the impact of simulations on students' knowledge and perceptions of SDoH.
• To explore student learning experiences and attitudes towards SDoH through qualitative and quantitative measures.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of 132 first-year pharmacy students participated in the study.
• The curriculum included a lecture, an online poverty game, and in-class computer-simulated SDoH clinical scenarios with case discussions.
• Student learning was assessed using pre- and post-quizzes, a perception survey, and analysis of open-ended questions.

Main Results:

• Thematic analysis revealed key learning themes including empathy (42%), general SDoH knowledge (30%), and cultural/economic factors (18%, 15%).
• Student perceptions of teaching modalities averaged 4 out of 5.
• Mean quiz scores increased from 2.31 pre-quiz to 2.51 post-quiz.

Conclusions:

• Computer simulations serve as a valuable supplemental tool for teaching and applying SDoH in clinical pharmacy education.
• Incorporating SDoH education throughout the pharmacy curriculum is recommended to enhance student knowledge and clinical skills.
• Simulations provide a practical approach to understanding SDoH in patient care scenarios.