Stop, collaborate, and listen: Encouraging interprofessional education through critical care simulations for pharmacy students

The ability to work effectively on an interprofessional team is a key skill for pharmacy students, especially in the critical care setting. Successful interprofessional teamwork between pharmacists and the health care team has been shown to improve patient outcomes. Subsequently, early exposure to interprofessionalism in the critical care setting may benefit student pharmacist confidence and performance prior to advanced hospital rotations. Simulation training offers an ideal, low-risk educational methodology for student pharmacists to practice key skills. To describe changes in student pharmacist confidence in pharmacotherapy interventions and interprofessional skills using team-based critical care simulations. Teams of two student pharmacists and six student physicians executed two simulated cases of myocardial infarction and emergent hypertension under the auspices of a physician resident or senior student physician. After diagnosis by the student physicians, student pharmacists consulted on treatment decisions including drug selection, dose, and frequency. Confidence in clinical skills and interprofessionalism were assessed via an unvalidated, pre- and post-simulation survey unique to each profession. Questions were a combination of free responses and a five-point Likert scale. A total of 105 students participated in the simulations with 26 student pharmacists and 79 student physicians. After the simulations, student pharmacist confidence in their pharmacotherapy knowledge of emergent hypertension and myocardial infarctions (p < 0.02) improved; however, their confidence in effectively communicating with their physician counterparts did not increase significantly (p = 0.06). Student physician confidence in the pharmacist's role during codes increased (p < 0.001), which coincided with student pharmacists' feeling respected and included by the physician team. Interprofessional simulations can supplement critical care exposure and pharmacotherapy education for student pharmacists and student physicians. The simulation design discussed in this report can provide pharmacy educators with a model for implementing team-based critical care scenarios within pharmacotherapy or foundational professional skills curricula.