E-education in Poland and abroad Unfortunately there is still the lack of proper legal regulations in the current system of education that is the basic obstacle for the development of this kind of studies in Poland. Constructing didactic process with the use of Internet potential requires competent application of both educational regulations and minimum programmes which are imposed on schools. The level of technical culture and ability to use computer is another barrier. The majority of users confess that their computer activity is limited to simple applications, frequently created especially for beginners.
Some random facts: • 40% of every dollar spent on training is spent on travel costs • Without use and practice, people forget 25% of what they know in 6 hours and 33% within 24 hours • Average Fortune 500 Company loses $64 million per year because of ineffective knowledge sharing • 38% of a professionalʼs time is spent looking for information
In the Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical College, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland there is a course “Practical Pharmacy in a Community Pharmacy” where students learn by using blended learning method. Participants listen to the interview with a patient which is stored in the computer and provide a patient an adequate pharmaceutical care. During the course they are provided with some interactive presentations and they are allowed to check all medical information in online databases. At the end of the course attendees need to write a final test. They do it online and receive their results immediately.
This innovative approach challenged students and promoted interactive learning. Student evaluations indicated achievement the objective of creating a course that more closely simulated the actual provision of pharmaceutical care.
At the Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy, Loma Linda, USA an innovative, interactive voice response/text-to-speech system for obtaining patient data was designed and used in a pharmaceutical care laboratory. Pharmacy students called the system to collect data, listen to progress notes, make recommendations and update the pharmaceutical care plan for virtual patients. Laboratory time was utilized to evaluate patient progress and respond to recommendations as well as to identify and solve drug-related problems Students' recorded communications with the system and completed care plans were evaluated and a competency-based final examination was administered.
Pharmaceutical care laboratory courses offer students the opportunity to learn and practice pharmaceutical care skills in a controlled environment. These courses usually include instruction in dispensing as well as clinical activities. Typically, a new patient case is presented in each laboratory section and no “follow up” care of patients from previous laboratory sections is discussed. The authors of the above course have created several virtual patients whose responses to care vary based on students' input and recommendations. For example, if a wrong drug or dose is recommended, an adverse event may occur; if patient counseling is not provided, an error in administration may be encountered; if patient compliance is not evaluated; drug levels may be unexpectedly altered. The application of virtual patients who change in ways appropriate to the recommendations students make creates scenarios that more closely parallel the reality of pharmaceutical care. Since students must search online databases and study other resources to gather the information needed to make informed decisions about their patients, the course also builds the data collection skills.
Krzysztof Nesterowicz EPSA Financial Subcommittee Member 2008/09
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