Cultivating Patient Empathy in Student
Pharmacists through an Introduction to Pharmaceutical Care
Course
Emily M. Ambizas, Danielle C. Ezzo, Maria
Marzella Sulli, and John Conry, Department of Clinical
Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy and Allied Health
Professions
Abstract: To expose students in an
Introduction to Pharmaceutical Care course, to exercises that will
stimulate patient empathy and to determine how these activities
affected their perceptions of patient challenges.
The course is taught in the spring semester of the first
professional year and has approximately 250 students registered per
semester. Three exercises were incorporated by the faculty to
expose students to situations that would mimic a patient's
experience in the patient care process. First, students were
expected to make and keep a mock doctor’s appointment with an
assigned faculty member. Next, they were provided with a vial of
"medication" and instructed to follow the directions on the label
for 7 days. Lastly, they were to monitor and record their blood
pressure at least once weekly for 4 consecutive weeks. Prior to
activities, students were informed to turn in a reflective paper
based on their experiences as a patient. Classroom discussion
was held in order to share student’s experiences and explore how to
implement their discoveries into patient care. Pre and post
activity surveys were distributed via Survey Monkey and data were
tabulated. Pre-activity surveys were completed by 216
students compared to 187 post surveys. Five multi-part survey
questions focused on the level of difficulty that students
perceived from the three patient activities. Answers
available were on a scale from very easy to very
difficult.
Overall, there was an 18.2% increase in students who reported a
‘good understanding of what patients go through’ during post
activity analysis and students who reported that they could relate
to their patients’ medication experience increased by 20 % during
post activity analysis. A 30.8% increase in the number of
students who reported they were able to better relate to their
patient’s medication experience was also noted. Various positive
changes post-activity in regard to each specific task also were
observed.
Empathy-provoking activities have been shown to alter student’s
perception of various daily activities patient will encounter
during their treatment.