Journal of Research in Pharmacy Practice

Abstract The objective of this study is to describe the process of training valid simulated patients (SPs) for assessing communication and counseling skills of pharmacy students' performance. Methods: This is a cross-sectional and correlational study. Psychometric properties of checklist and SPs' portrayals and their filling of the checklist regarding assessing pharmacy students were assessed. Five SPs who were working in the simulated patient's pool were volunteered to take part in the project, which one of the SPs failed. Three scenarios, along with corresponding checklists, were developed based on the usual medications of different diseases consisting of asthma, respiratory infections, and osteoporosis. The SPs' role-play performance was video-recorded and rated independently by two experts according to an observational rating scale to assess validity. The role-play was repeated after 1 week with the same scenario and the same doctor, to assess test-retest reliability. The inter-rater agreement between SPs and experts was determined by calculating the intraclass correlation coefficient and kappa coefficient. Findings: The four eligible SPs were all women, with an average age of 37 years. The correlation between mean scores of raters and mean scores of SPs was 0.91 and 0.85, respectively. The Pearson's correlation between mean scores of raters with SPs was 0.75. The checklists' reliability, Cronbach's alpha, was calculated to be 0.72. The measured weighted Cohen's kappa for the ratings of by each SP, and the gold standard was between 0.53 and 0.57, indicating a moderate agreement. The inter-rater reliability kappa coefficient between raters was 0.75 (P = 0.01).
Conclusion: The authors have demonstrated the technique of using standardized patients to evaluate communication and counseling skills of pharmacy students. The findings indicated that trained SPs can be used as an effective tool to assess pharmacy students' communication and counseling skills.

Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the awareness and perception of general 
educated Indian individuals about Doctor of Pharmacy course.
Methods: A cross‑sectional structured Pharm.D questionnaire survey was conducted at 
educational institutions of India mainly through e‑mails. Pharm.D questionnaire survey was 
conducted over a period of six months. The questionnaire was classified into four major 
categories, including course‑related questions, roles‑related questions, critical comparative 
questions, and opinion‑based questions. The responses were collected and analyzed to assess 
the opinions and attitudes of the study population regarding the course Pharm.D.
Findings: Out of 2819 responses, 66.01% agreed that Indian syllabus, teaching procedure, 
and hospital training in institutions are enough to prepare an ideally graduated Pharm.D. 
Respondents of about 70.59% agreed that Pharm.Ds should take care of complete 
responsibility of drug therapy rather than physicians prescribing the medications and Pharm.
Ds fixing the dose. The statement “Pharm.Ds play a vital role in improving medication 
adherence through patient counseling” was accepted by 47.80%, whereas 41.40% did not 
accept it as they felt that the Pharm.D’s role in this regard is not more than the physician’s 
role, and 10.80% suggested that other healthcare professionals would play a better role. 
Among all the respondents, 73.64% of the study population was found to be ready for giving 
equal credit and respect to Pharm.Ds as physicians.
Conclusion: Our survey emphasizes on the opinion of educated people of having Pharm.Ds 
in both government and private hospitals to take care of complete therapy and for improving 
medication adherence.