Using peer teaching to introduce the Pharmaceutical Care Model to incoming pharmacy students.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this initiative was to design and evaluate a peer teaching activity where pairs of second-year pharmacy students introduced the Pharmaceutical Care Model and discussed success in the broader first-year pharmacy curriculum with pairs of first year students.

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY: Second-year pharmacy students individually created concept maps illustrating the main components of pharmaceutical care to be used as teaching tools with first-year students. First-year students were given a brief introduction to pharmaceutical care by faculty and prepared questions to ask their second-year colleagues. Two second-year students were then matched with two first-year students for a two-part peer teaching event. Each student completed documentation of the peer experience, which included questions about the effectiveness of the teaching, changes to be made in the future, and the usefulness of the exercise. The documentation was analyzed via content analysis and instructors evaluated the concept maps based on their effectiveness as a teaching tool for novices. A rubric was used to evaluate 166 concept maps of which 145 were rated good, 18 were rated as better, and 3 as best. Themes emerging from the content analysis included: positive impact of teaching and learning pharmaceutical care, value of broader curriculum discussion, and beneficial first- and second-year connections.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY: A structured peer teaching event outside the traditional classroom setting can create a space for: teaching and learning to occur, student-student connections to be made, and advice on the curriculum to be shared.