Evaluating a health education intervention to improve pill swallowing for trainee doctors, nurses, physicians' assistants and pharmacists in Europe, the Middle East and Asia – KidzMed Goes Global

BACKGROUND: All healthcare professionals (HCPs), have a role in ensuring patient understanding and optimal medication use. Solid oral dosage forms (SODFs) or pills are commonly prescribed; however, some patients struggle to take these and there is minimal reference to this in HCP education. KidzMed is a validated training programme that can support this in children and adults. We explored student views on its application in undergraduate medical, nursing, physician assistant, and pharmacy programmes in the United Kingdom (UK), Malaysia, and Jordan. METHODS: University ethical approval was granted. HCP students from four universities in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia participated. This involved completing the pre-work of the KidzMed e-learning followed by its application in a simulated 90-min workshop at their university. Students were invited to evaluate the training and its potential application in their future practice via completion of e-questionnaires. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics to infer findings. Free-text comments were thematically analysed. RESULTS: A total of 327 HCP students completed evaluation questionnaires. They viewed the training favourably describing the content and length as "about right". They described the interventions as 'edutainment' - a fun activity that was also educational. Participants felt comfortable to counsel parents or patients to swallow pills and saw the relevance of this skill to everyday lived experiences of using pills. They expressed a desire to do more activities like this. CONCLUSIONS: All HCPs will encounter patients using pills in their clinical practice. Training at the undergraduate level to seek information about SODF use will allow the identification and rectification of poor pill use. KidzMed is a useful training tool to teach undergraduate HCPs from various professional backgrounds across different global jurisdictions, providing them with a fun, practical and educationally relevant session that they can apply to patients of all ages in their future practice.