Dataset Information

Evaluating pharmacy students' knowledge and skills in reproductive, maternal, new-born and child health care at a South African university.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Maternal and child mortality is a global concern and one of South Africa's quadruple burdens of disease. As easily accessible frontline healthcare workers, pharmacists play an important role in the continuum of maternal and child health (MCH) care according to recommendations by international health regulatory bodies. Pharmacy schools are obliged to train pharmacy students to meet the priority health needs of the population so that graduates are 'fit for purpose'. The baseline study aimed to evaluate the knowledge and skills of 2017 final year pharmacy students who were exposed to a fragmented MCH care curriculum at a university in South Africa to inform curriculum review.

Methods

A descriptive, quantitative, non-randomized study was conducted among final year pharmacy students using a self-administered structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed in sections to assess participants' knowledge of reproductive and sexual health (RSH), maternal and antenatal care (MAC), neonatal and child care (NCC) and skills related to infant growth assessment procedures. Data was analysed descriptively using frequencies and percentages. A score of 50% in each section of the questionnaire indicated a pass. Participants assessed their exposure to MCH topics in the curriculum.

Results

Of the 89 available students, 61% consented to participate in the study. The average scores attained for each section were; 62.4% for RSH, 54.5% for MAC, 50.4% for NCC and 25.3% for infant growth assessment. The pass rate was 78% for RSH, 56% for MAC, 57% for NCC, and 19% for infant growth assessment. About 13% of the participants passed all the knowledge and the skills sections. Age, gender, being a parent or doing locums did not have any influence on participants' performance. Participants reported that they had more on-campus curriculum content exposure to RSH compared to other MCH care topics.

Conclusion

Final year pharmacy students showed adequate knowledge of RSH with adequate curriculum exposure. Average knowledge of MAC, NCC and poor skills in infant growth assessment which corresponded to curriculum exposure was observed. The results suggest the need for improvement in the current curriculum in the affected areas to adequately equip students to render desirable services.

SUBMITTER: Egieyeh E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7791779 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Evaluating pharmacy students' knowledge and skills in reproductive, maternal, new-born and child health care at a South African university.

Egieyeh Elizabeth E van Huyssteen Mea M Coetzee Renier R Bheekie Angeni A

BMC medical education 20210107 1

<h4>Background</h4>Maternal and child mortality is a global concern and one of South Africa's quadruple burdens of disease. As easily accessible frontline healthcare workers, pharmacists play an important role in the continuum of maternal and child health (MCH) care according to recommendations by international health regulatory bodies. Pharmacy schools are obliged to train pharmacy students to meet the priority health needs of the population so that graduates are 'fit for purpose'. The baseline ...[more]

PMID: 33413294

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Project description:ObjectivesThis study aimed to describe the effect of using an innovative teaching strategy using a video tutorial on enhancing students' knowledge about medication reconciliation, and skills in identifying medication discrepancies.MethodsThis is a one group pre-post interventional study that was conducted at the School of Pharmacy at Applied Science Private University. Sixty pharmacy students were invited to attend an educational sessions that involve watching a 6-minutes video tutorial. The first two levels of the Kirkpatrick's Model were used to evaluate the effectiveness of this training tool. Level 1 (Reaction) was assessed using a satisfaction questionnaire, while level 2 (Learning) was assessed using two criteria: 1) student acquired knowledge about medication reconciliation using a questionnaire and a knowledge score out of 13 was calculated for each student, and 2) student acquired skills in identifying medication discrepancies using a virtual case scenario. If the student was able to identify any of the four impeded discrepancies he/she rewarded 1 point for each identified discrepancy, but if they identified any incorrect discrepancy they scored a negative point.ResultsAmong the 60 students who registered to participate in the study, 49 attended the educational training (response rate 81.6%). The majority of them (n=44, 89.8%) were satisfied with the training process. Before the video tutorial, students showed an overall low knowledge score [4.08/13.0, SD 1.81], and low ability to identify discrepancies [0.72 identified discrepancies out of 4.0, SD 1.1]. Following the video tutorial, the overall knowledge score was improved (p<0.001), and students were able to identify more discrepancies after watching the video (p<0.001).ConclusionIn conclusion, video education has shown itself to be an effective method to educate pharmacy students.. This visualized method can be applied to other areas within pharmacy education. We encourage the integration of videos within the learning process to enhance students' learning experience and to support the traditional learning provided by the teaching staff.

Project description:BackgroundTraditional medicine has always been Pakistan's cultural heritage, providing health care to a large part of its population. Thus, we aimed to assess and compare the knowledge, attitude, and perception about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) between pharmacy and non-pharmacy students, the results of which may be helpful in devising national health-education policy.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted by enrolling 937 students, pharmacy (437) and non-pharmacy (500), of Punjab University, Lahore. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS. (IBM v22).ResultsData suggested that majority of students knew about the use of traditional herbs and considered massage (P: 84.4%, NP: 82%, p = 0.099), homeopathy, herbs (P: 86.5%, NP: 81%, p = 0.064], yoga [P: 357 (81.7%), NP: 84%), p = 0.42] and spiritual healing (P: 85.6%, NP: 86.2%, p = 0.55) as effective and least harmful CAM modalities. The pharmacy students had better knowledge about CAM modalities compared to non-pharmacy students. Despite utilizing non-reliable sources of CAM information and their belief that CAM is practiced by quacks, the majority of students had positive attitudes and perceptions about CAM usage. Students also believed that CAM had a positive impact on health outcomes [P: 3.19 ± 1.04, NP: 3.02 ± 1.09, p = 0.008] and acceded to include CAM in the pharmacy curriculum. However, non-pharmacy students scored higher in their beliefs that CAM usage should be discouraged due to the non-scientific basis of CAM (P: 3.04 ± 0.97, NP: 3.17 ± 1.02, p = 0.028) and a possible threat to public health (P: 3.81 ± 1.74, NP: 4.06 ± 1.56, p = 0.02). On the other hand, pharmacy students believed that patients might get benefits from CAM modalities (P: 4.31 ± 1.48, NP: 4.12 ± 1.45, p = 0.02). Majority of students perceived that spiritual healing is the most useful and safer CAM modality, while acupuncture (P: 25.4%, NP: 21.8%, p = 0.0005), hypnosis (P: 26.8%, NP: 19.6%, p = 0.001) and chiropractic (P: 18.8%, NP: 11.6%, p = 0.0005) were among the harmful ones.ConclusionIn conclusion, despite poor knowledge about CAM, students demonstrated positive attitudes and beliefs regarding CAM. They exhibited better awareness about yoga, spiritual healing/prayer, herbs, and massage. Students also showed willingness to advance their knowledge about CAM and favored its inclusion in the curriculum.

Dataset Information

Evaluating pharmacy students' knowledge and skills in reproductive, maternal, new-born and child health care at a South African university.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Evaluating pharmacy students' knowledge and skills in reproductive, maternal, new-born and child health care at a South African university.

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