Gail Orum (Keck Graduate Institute School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences)
Hypothesis/Issue to be addressed: The issue was to develop a journal club assignment using Zoom rather than face-to-face, to improve students' presentation skills and prepare them for advancement to the Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPE).
Methods: The PHAR 588 Geriatric Patient Care elective course enrolled 32 third year (P3) pharmacy students in Spring 2020. Due to the online format, the journal club assignment was modified to two journal club assignments in teams, with pre-selected articles. The presentation rubrics included written and presentation skills totaling 36 points. Teams had ten minutes for presentation and five minutes for question and answer.Each student was required to speak. There were four teams total.
Observations/Outcomes: The class mean between the first and second journal clubs was 28/36 and 31.75/36, respectively. Teams that performed poorly in the first journal club, demonstrated thegreatest improvement in the second. For example, team A scored 20/36 on the first journal club, but scored 33/36 on the second. Teams with high scores in the first journal club, showed 1-2 point drop in scores.
Conclusion: Virtual journal clubs can be effective in improving students' presentation skills.
Download PowerPoint slides here and the rubric from the presentation.
View the recording below.
