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Undergraduate pharmacy students' perceptions and experiences of a student-led clinic providing preventative services

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Charlotte RichardsonORCiD, Professor Hamde Nazar

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).


Abstract

© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.Objectives: Authentic work-based learning is crucial to facilitate the development and preparedness for training healthcare professionals. Such experiences are challenging to design and secure within the clinical environment. One School of Pharmacy established a student-led clinic to provide undergraduate pharmacy students the opportunity to practise physical assessment and communication skills with members of the public. The aim of this study was to explore students' thoughts and perspectives on this experience. Methods: Undergraduate students were invited to participate in a semi-structured interview after their clinic experience. Transcriptions of the interviews were analysed by reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Twelve students agreed to an interview that took place between October and December 2022. Three themes were identified from the qualitative data which related to external factors that influenced student experience of the clinic, for example, organizational issues and impact of the physical environment; interactions within the clinic environment; and internalized learning for example, professional growth and development, and the appreciating the learning opportunity. Conclusions: In the current climate, where securing valuable work-based learning opportunity is challenging, student-led clinics offer an environment that is well-received by students and appears to facilitate student professional development. Student clinics are receiving more attention and investment across undergraduate healthcare programmes around the world given advantages such as these. However, they need to be well integrated and structured into the existing training and education and students need appropriate induction to prepare them for the experience and manage expectations.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Abdul-Salam P, Richardson C, Nazar H

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: International Journal of Pharmacy Practice

Year: 2024

Volume: 32

Issue: 4

Pages: 316-321

Print publication date: 01/08/2024

Online publication date: 30/05/2024

Acceptance date: 09/05/2024

Date deposited: 22/07/2024

ISSN (print): 0961-7671

ISSN (electronic): 2042-7174

Publisher: Oxford University Press

URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpp/riae023

DOI: 10.1093/ijpp/riae023

Data Access Statement: All anonymized data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

PubMed id: 38815978


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