Development and Pilot Testing of the OTC Coach Software to Support Student Pharmacist Learning

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Description of the problem: Pharmacy students are expected to learn how condition and patient-specific factors influence medication decision-making. Our objective was to create an interactive learning tool that would support students as they learn how individual factors change over-the-counter (OTC) medication recommendations. Description of the innovation: OTC Coach was created to allow student pharmacists to practice making recommendations about OTC medications. First year student pharmacists enrolled in a required self-care therapeutics course were given access to the optional OTC Coach, which included electronic decision algorithms for 10 topics. Student perceptions were collected via an online survey. Critical analysis: Two-thirds of the first-year students enrolled in the self-care therapeutics course activated their OTC Coach account (n=53/79, 67%). Among the students who completed the survey and reported using the tool (n=60/75, 80%), there was agreement that it help them learn the course material (78%), increased their confidence in making appropriate therapeutic recommendations (78%), increased their confidence when answering examination questions (63%), and improved their examination performance (61%). Next steps: Implementing an electronic tool positively supported student learning about OTC medication recommendations, according to student self-report. The tool is being expanded to include an option for students to generate a series of scenarios with randomized patient and condition factors to further allow students to efficiently practice making repeated patient-centered recommendations.