Impact of a virtual patient pilot program on student pharmacists' learning outcomes

Purpose: To assess the impact of virtual patient (VP) technology implementation on student pharmacists’ medication therapy management (MTM) skills.

Methods: Third professional year student pharmacists (N=135) participated in a pilot program involving a web-based, clinical practice simulator near the completion of a therapeutics course series. Ten virtual patient cases and their electronic medical records were developed. Clinical competencies were established for each case to evaluate MTM skills. Assessments included simulator competency achievement and performance on four pairs of short-answer exam questions that were mapped to four competencies (antibiotics/allergies (AA), heart failure (HF), preventative health (PH), and medication adherence (MA)) which were administered before and during the pilot.  A paired t-test compared exam results. A survey was administered at the program completion to evaluate students’ attitudes towards the software and its contribution to learning.

Results: One hundred nineteen students successfully completed eight or more cases and the average number of competencies achieved was 40 out of 55 (73%).  Students’ exam scores significantly improved on three of the four mapped competencies (AA, 40% vs. 57.8%, p<0.001; PH, 89.1% vs. 99%, p<0.001; and MA, 89.6% vs. 99.6%, p<0.001) with non-significant improvements noted on HF (61.1% vs. 70.6%, p=0.06). Eighty and 90% of students thought the pilot improved their chronic disease management skills and was a good summary of the course series, respectively. Commonly reported concerns involved limitations or “glitches” with the technology software.

Conclusion: Improvements in students’ MTM skills were observed on three of the four mapped competencies, based on significantly higher exam scores and a high competency achievement rate.  Software assessment data will be used to identify learning gaps and make curricular improvements. Overall student perceptions of the VP technology were positive, however, the software requires further technical refinement before it can be fully integrated into the school’s curriculum.