A Community Outreach Blood Pressure Clinic: Experiential practice site for pharmacy and dental hygiene students trained in physical assessment
Keywords:
Blood Pressure, Community Outreach, Experiential Site, Pharmacy Education, Physical AssessmentAbstract
Background: The application of skills in physical assessment is recognised as an important part of providing pharmaceutical care. However, the number of quality experiential opportunities for pharmacy students to practice these skills is currently limited.
Objective: To describe the implementation and evaluation of a Community Outreach Blood Pressure Clinic for pharmacy and dental hygiene students.
Procedures: Three blood pressure clinics were designed to provide a unique learning environment for pharmacy and dental hygiene students to practice their skills in physical assessment. A 5-point Likert scale and open comments were used to measure student’s confidence, comfort, and knowledge on performing a blood pressure reading on a patient. To evaluate the impact of the clinic on the community, participant satisfaction and the proportion of individuals who have not had a blood pressure reading in the previous year were also captured.
Results: All participants reported being satisfied or very satisfied about the blood pressure clinic. Among the participants, 18 (56%), 19 (35%), and 30 (54%) did not recall or know what their typical blood pressure reading was at the College of Pharmacy, Community Centre, and Residential Home, respectively. The percentage of students that agreed or strongly agreed to feeling confident (44/46 or 96% vs. 12/18 or 67%, p<0.05), comfortable (44/46 or 96% vs. 13/18 or 72%, p<0.05), and knowledgeable (45/46 or 98% vs. 14/18 or 79%, p<0.05) about performing a physical assessment of vitals on a patient was higher after the experiential site than after the online module, respectively. No differences in responses between pharmacy and dental hygiene students were observed.
Conclusions: This study suggests that a Community Outreach Blood Pressure Clinic provided a satisfactory experience for students to apply their skills in performing a blood pressure reading and assessment. Student reported confidence was improved after the experiential exposure compared to the practice lab and online module. Findings from this study will be used to improve existing experiential programs related to the advancement of skills in physical assessment.
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