Standardized approach to patient-based pharmacotherapy notes in a therapeutics course

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of utilizing standardized patient-based pharmacotherapy notes, specifically the Subjective Objective Assessment Plan Education (SOAPE) note format, to improve students’ knowledge and confidence in patient-based documentation in a cardiovascular therapeutics course.

Methods: For two consecutive years, five weekly patient-case discussion sessions were incorporated into a cardiovascular therapeutics course for second-year pharmacy students. Each week, students came prepared for small-group discussions on a patient case they completed ahead of time, utilizing the SOAPE note format. Then, students worked-up a second patient case and submitted a SOAPE note for a grade. A pre-test and post-test assessing students level of confidence and knowledge in preparation of SOAPE notes were administered at the beginning and end of the course, respectively. Perception of confidence was ranked on a 4-point Likert scale with 4=strongly agree and 1=strongly disagree. Data collection for this study was approved by the Institutional Review Board and students voluntarily signed informed consent prior to participation. Scores on the pre-tests and post-tests were compared utilizing descriptive statistics and student’s t-tests.

Results: A total of 242 (88.6%) students completed both the pre-test and post-test. There was significant improvement in students’ confidence in writing SOAPE notes by the end of the course, with a mean(SD) score of 2.69(0.51) on the pre-test and 3.59(0.36) on the post-test (p<0.001). Students’ mean(SD) performance on the knowledge section of the pre- and post-tests were 93.7%(9.64) and 99.2%(3.99), respectively (p<0.001). Students with prior experience writing SOAPE notes had higher confidence and knowledge scores on the pre-test compared to those without experience, however on the post-test, there was no significant difference between both groups.

Conclusion: Utilization of a standardized approach to patient-based pharmacotherapy notes may enhance students’ understanding and confidence to perform this vital task on experiential patient care rotations and in clinical practice.