Exploring the Impact of a Vicarious Learning Approach on Student Pharmacists’ Professional Identity Formation Using a Simulated Pharmacist–Patient Encounter

Description

Laurie L Briceland, Courtney Dudla, Alexandra Watson, and Paul Denvir test a teaching exercise meant to shape pharmacy students' sense of professional identity. Their 2023 study rests on vicarious learning: students grow by watching others act. A twelve-minute role-play video showed a pharmacist counseling a patient on a new drug regimen, with some parts done well and others left flawed on purpose.

Students watched in the observer seat. They then debated which principles the pharmacist had handled well and which needed work. Each wrote a reflection on what the viewing did to their own sense of becoming a pharmacist. Themes from the essays ran from awareness of technique and plain language to empathy, the pull of good and bad role models, and the value of the observer role itself. The authors report the exercise moved students toward thinking, acting, and feeling like pharmacists.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC10661241