Evaluating a pharmacy student-led medication awareness campaign: perceptions and achievement of learning outcomes

As a form of active learning, educational campaigns enhance student engagement, critical thinking, and professionalism. However, their impact on knowledge and learning outcomes among pharmacy students remains limited. Accordingly, this study evaluates the effects of a medication safety campaign on students' perceptions of the campaign and learning outcome achievements.

We conducted a cross-sectional survey among fourth-year pharmacy students enrolled in the course 'Principles of Medication Safety' during the academic years 2023 and 2024. A 20-item online survey was used to capture students' perceptions of the educational campaign and their perceived achievement of course learning outcomes using a 5-point Likert scale. Descriptive statistics were employed to summarize responses, and categorical data were analyzed using Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests, with a significance threshold of p < 0.05.

A total of 100 pharmacy students participated in the study, most of whom reported positive perceptions of the campaign (78%) and 82% believed they had achieved high learning outcomes, particularly in communication skills, critical thinking, and problem-solving. Students with prior campaign experience (24%) reported higher overall perceptions and learning outcome scores, while first-time participants (76%) reported slightly better learning outcome scores.

The medication safety awareness campaign resulted in improved students' perceptions and self-reported learning outcomes, suggesting its potential as a useful active learning strategy in pharmacy education. These findings support the inclusion of similar campaigns in pharmacy curricula and indicate the need for further research to ascertain their long-term impact on professional preparedness.