“Experiences and Perceptions of Doctor of Pharmacy Students in India on Practical Skills and Education Provided by Mentors during Clinical Rotations”

Introduction: Pharmacy mentors have a crucial role in establishing a good teaching and learning environment in a clinical setup.

Objectives: To investigate the overall experience of students from the Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D) program in India during their clinical rotations.

Study Design: A cross-sectional study

Methods: We designed a prospective cross-sectional study using a self-administered survey instrument containing 34 items to obtain feedback from senior Pharm.D students in the latter three years of their six-year program from November 2014 to February 2015

Results: A total of 415 Pharm.D students were approached for this survey, and 261 students (62.9% response rate) successfully completed it (53.6% males and 46.4% females). Of the surveyed participants, nearly three-forth (74%) were fifth and final year interns and undertaking clinical training in private hospitals (60.9%). Students observed that unnecessary drug therapy (78.2%), adverse drug reactions (39.1%), and non-adherence (35.2%) were the most common drug-related problems among the patients during their rotations. Interestingly, 37.9% of the students ranked their clinical training as "least satisfactory" and remarked that their clinical pharmacy services were not recognized or appreciated in their respective hospitals (42.9%). However, 20% of the students expressed that their site "definitely" provided them with the opportunity to hone clinical pharmacy skills. When asked to evaluate their mentors, only 10% of the students strongly agreed that their mentors encouraged them to use resource materials and learn on their own, met with them regularly to review their work and to provide feedback.

Conclusions: Our study revealed that the majority of the Pharm.D students we surveyed in India were "least satisfied" with their clinical training program and identified deficiencies in its quality and reliability. Mentors should take more efforts to demonstrate practice-based clinical training and provide patient-centered education to the Pharm.D students at their clinical sites.