Patient assessment teaching and learning in undergraduate pharmacy curriculum: students' perspective of a pharmacist-physician instructional strategy

Introduction: Pharmacy programmes commonly use physicians, nurses, and physician assistants as instructors of patient assessment courses. These are often questioned to be physician-focused. The aim of this study was to assess pharmacy students' attitude and perceptions towards implemented changes to the instruction of a patient assessment course. Description of Course: In a patient assessment course for undergraduate pharmacy students, we introduced a physician-pharmacist instructional strategy with a view to ensure relevance to and application in pharmacy practice. Evaluation: A significantly greater proportion of the pharmacy students rated their skills as above average to excellent after the pharmacist's instruction when compared to prior instruction with a physician only (75%, n=18 vs. 42%, n=10, respectively; p=0.010). Similarly, most respondents (83%, n=20) rated their understanding of the importance of patient assessment skills as above average to excellent after the inclusion of the pharmacist in the course delivery as compared to only 50% (n=12) having such impression prior to the inclusion of the pharmacist (p=0.004). Future Plans: A collaborative physician-pharmacist model of teaching patient assessment is feasible, may potentially improve outcomes towards learning the skills of patient assessment, and should be continued in this programme.