Evaluating communication skills after long-term practical training among Japanese pharmacy students.

INTRODUCTION: The goal of this study was to assess pharmacy students' satisfaction with long-term practical training programs at hospital and community pharmacies and how these programs benefitted communication skills.

METHODS: We asked 83 fifth-year pharmacy students to answer anonymous questionnaires assessing their satisfaction and perceived benefits of practical training and to complete Teramachi's Pharmacist Communication Skill Scale (TePSS-31), a measure of pharmacists' communication skills, after undergoing their practical training periods at hospital and community pharmacies in 2014.

RESULTS: Over 90% of students who underwent the practical training were satisfied with their experiences. Furthermore, they reported that practical training institution was helpful for improving their communication skills and gave them sufficient opportunity to interact with consulting patients, engage in role play with pharmacists or peers, and observe interactions between pharmacists and patients. Overall, over 80% of students felt that they had shown improvement in communication skills, indicating that the training was effective. We further reconfirmed that the TePSS-31 has good internal consistency. The total scores on the TePSS-31 after the hospital and community pharmacy training programs did not significantly differ, indicating that the place where the training was received did not influence students' acquisition of communication skills.

CONCLUSIONS: Most students were satisfied with the long-term practical training at hospital and community pharmacies, and the training helped improve their communication skills for dealing with patients and coworkers.