What is the best curriculum timing for an educational podcast aiming to improve medical students' attitudes towards physician-pharmacist collaboration: a pre-post study.

BACKGROUND

Safe and effective pharmacotherapeutic care requires collaboration between physicians and pharmacists. Such interprofessional collaboration demands mutual understanding of roles and responsibilities. Since interprofessional education can be logistically complex to implement, educational podcasts can provide a flexible and low cost alternative to facilitate unilateral education focusing on collaboration. To improve medical students' understanding of the role and responsibilities of pharmacists, we created an educational podcast episode about community pharmacists. In this study, we explored the best timing in the curriculum to improve medical students' attitudes toward physician-pharmacist collaboration using an educational podcast.

METHODS

We recorded a 48 minute audio-podcast episode in an interview format about the roles and responsibilities of community pharmacists. A prospective study using a pre-post design was conducted to evaluate the learning outcomes of the podcast in second year bachelor and final year master medical students. The effect on attitude towards physician-pharmacist collaboration was evaluated using the Scale of Attitudes towards Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration (SATP2C). SATP2C scores before and after listening to the podcast were evaluated using a paired t-test. Thematic analysis of the open ended questions was used to evaluate participants' learning experiences and perceptions of the podcast.

RESULTS

Respectively 161 bachelor and 105 master students agreed to take part in the study and completed the first questionnaire. Thirty-six participants in the bachelor group, and 32 participants in the master group filled out both questionnaires. Bachelor students showed a greater increase in attitude towards physician-pharmacist collaboration after listening to the podcast episode, with their mean SATP2C score improving significantly from 52.08 to 54.39 (p=0.001). Master students' SATP2C score increased slightly, from 53.22 to 54.06. Analysis of the open-ended responses revealed that both groups gained new insights into the role and responsibilities of pharmacists.

CONCLUSIONS

Educational podcasts can improve medical students' attitude towards physician-pharmacist collaboration, particularly when introduced early in the curriculum. Podcasts offer a flexible and scalable format to enhance role understanding and promote interprofessional awareness among students.