Does using patient as teacher have a positive impact on students' experience?

Abstract

Background: Costello and Horne (2001) suggested that the involvement of patients in a classroom setting makes positive use of their contribution to the teaching and learning of healthcare practitioners. Becket at al. (2014) explained the importance of involving patients in the delivery of pharmacy education. This study is part of a two-year pedagogy research programme to elucidate students' perceptions on the role of patients in the classroom
Aim: To evaluate the impact of the patient as teacher (PAT) on students' experience.
Method: This is an observational study where first and second- year pharmacy students attended sessions with patients; at the end of each session, students were invited to fill an online questionnaire containing a psychometric scale. The analysis was conducted using SPSS v.26 employing descriptive statistics, Person's chi-square for the goodness of fit, Fisher Exact Test, odds ratio (OR), phi (φ) to assess the strength of the association between categorical variables. The study received ethics approval (Ref. HEALTH 0029).
Results: Sixty-eight of 228 students participated. No statistical difference was found between gender (p=0.090); a statistically significant difference was found between years (p=0.008). Cronbach’s α (0.809) confirmed a good internal consistency. Ninety-seven percent of the students learned a lot, and 85.3% appreciated and valued the PAT sessions; 89.7% wanted more sessions; 92.7% perceived the sessions to contextualise their learning. Five questions were dichotomised into negative and positive; 90.3% of responses were positive and did not show statistically significant differences in gender and year of study. Overall students’ free text comments were positive, however active listening and consultation appeared in the positive and negative domains.
Conclusion: PAT sessions had a positive impact on students’ knowledge, communication skills and participation, and contextualised learning. They provide a valuable contribution to the pharmacy students’ experience in the United Kingdom.