Enhancing active learning of medication errors in the PharmD curriculum through a multi-perspective video-based...

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Education
• Patient Safety
• Medication Error Analysis

Background:

• Medication errors pose a significant risk to patient safety in healthcare.
• Effective training in medication error prevention and root cause analysis (RCA) is crucial for pharmacy students.
• Current educational methods may not fully equip students with practical skills in error investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create and evaluate an immersive, video-based instructional series for pharmacy students.
• To assess the impact of this series on students' skills and attitudes regarding medication error prevention and RCA.
• To measure changes in self-perceived competence in analyzing medication errors.

Main Methods:

• Developed a novel series of video vignettes depicting medication errors from multiple healthcare team perspectives.
• Engaged students in RCA activities integrated with video vignettes.
• Administered anonymous pre- and post-assessment tools to measure perceived skills and attitudes.
• Utilized Mann-Whitney U tests with Bonferroni correction for statistical analysis.

Main Results:

• A total of 231 students completed the pre-assessment and 163 completed the post-assessment.
• No significant changes were observed in student attitudes towards patient safety education.
• Significant improvements were reported in skills related to root cause analysis and identifying system factors contributing to medication errors.

Conclusions:

• The immersive video-based instructional activity significantly enhanced pharmacy students' self-perceived skills in medication error handling and prevention.
• Student attitudes regarding the importance of patient safety education did not change.
• Future interprofessional educational settings may offer further insights and benefits.