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Our Programs
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First-year Physician Assistant Practice and Pharmacy students receive their white coats to mark the start of their professional education journey.
OSCE Research Reveals Opportunities for Change
Kaitlyn Parcell (’23 PharmD Candidate) and Joshua James (’23 PharmD Candidate) were instrumental members of the research team.
In schools of pharmacy throughout the country, objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) are used to assess student pharmacists’ clinical knowledge, communication, and problem solving skills. Traditionally, OSCEs are conducted in-person to provide a “real-world” experience for student pharmacists to interact with simulated patients and providers to hone the skills they have learned in the classroom (e.g. teaching a patient how to use an inhaler). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many health science programs have had to make adjustments in their curricula to consider the wellbeing of students, staff, and faculty. As such, virtual accommodations and online learning tools became more prevalent in health sciences education. OSCEs are conducted within the CPHS pharmacy program at least twice a semester in the Pharmacy Practice Skills course series during the first three years of the program. In March and April 2020, course faculty began conducting virtual OSCEs to follow safety procedures and protocols put in place at the onset of the pandemic, and we continue to utilize virtual OSCEs as an alternative to inperson OSCEs. Recognizing there was limited literature that had evaluated the perceptions and acceptance of virtual OSCEs in health science programs, particularly in schools of pharmacy, two faculty members from the Department of Pharmacy Practice sought to gain more insight on this matter. In the fall of 2020, Drs. Dustin Wilson and Ann Marie Nye, associate professors of Pharmacy Practice, collaborated on developing a survey to distribute to the pharmacy faculty and to student pharmacists to assess their perceptions of virtual OSCEs. “We wanted to get student and faculty input comparing virtual and in-person OSCEs considering this was a new process for most of us,” said Dr. Nye. Drs. Nye and Wilson also recruited Joshua James (’23 PharmD Candidate) and Kaitlyn Parcell (’23 PharmD Candidate) to help with the project. “This project was of interest to Kaitlyn and me because of the direct impact we witnessed the COVID-19 pandemic have on our institution. Many aspects of our day-to-day class routines were altered to accommodate the changing environment brought about by COVID. Our project gave us the opportunity to better understand the usefulness of virtual OSCEs while gaining insight into the favorability of these examinations among students and faculty,” commented James. The survey was distributed in April 2021 to 49 faculty members and 233 current first, second, and third-year student pharmacists. Close to 40% of them completed the survey. “We were very pleased with the number of faculty and students who completed the survey. Responses affirmed that virtual OSCEs were being conducted well and provided a comparable experience as in-person OSCEs.” commented Dr. Wilson. Benefits of virtual OSCEs compared to in-person OSCEs included less time traveling to campus and the capability to record the sessions. However, limitations noted included technology issues and less realworld experiences. When asked how to improve virtual OSCEs, most comments from faculty and student pharmacists focused on technology (e.g. features of the virtual platform and using breakout rooms to minimize interruptions). The findings were presented during the CPHS PharmD Assessment Day Workshop in September. “There was great discussion on how we could improve the virtual OSCEs based on the survey findings, including more standardizing of the process.” commented Dr. Wilson. Drs. Nye and Wilson are optimistic that positive changes will be made to virtual OSCEs to benefit both the faculty and student pharmacists. “The pandemic caused an unplanned change in how OSCEs were conducted. I am thankful that Josh and Kaitlyn were willing to help with this survey so we could learn from that change,” said Dr. Nye.
Dr. Dustin Wilson Dr. Ann Marie Nye
IPE Offers Continuing Education Credit through INFORM
The Office of Interprofessional Education is continuing to offer the IPE INFORM monthly series to faculty/ staff members, practitioners, and other professionals. This series provides new opportunities to earn continuing education credit. The sessions are always interprofessional in nature from the presenter groups that develop them to the audience for whom they are presented. Sessions range from topics that are clinically relevant to those that are specific to interprofessional education. All sessions work to help participants have an enhanced understanding of interprofessional collaboration while focusing on different clinically relevant topics. In September, the session focused on “Interprofessional Care of the Patient with Diabetes,” and was presented by an interprofessional panel of practitioners at Benson Health, including alumna and faculty member Dr. Beth Mills. One of our recent PharmD alumna, Dr. Lina Poindexter, presented a timely and relevant topic in October entitled, “Walk a Mile in Someone Else’s Shoes: Anti-Vaxxer Rhetoric and the Role of Storytelling.” In November was a collaborative presentation on, “Surviving the Holidays: Ask Not What You Can Do for Your Body but What Your Body Can Do for You” presented by faculty member Dr. Katie Trotta along with a registered dietician. Please join us for the 2022 sessions. This year’s theme is centered around One Health - the interconnected web between humans, animals, plants, and the environment. These sessions will provide the opportunity to gain knowledge on vital topics and to earn continuing education credit for free. Use the QR code to register.
REPS
On October 12, the Office of Interprofessional Education offered its second required event for CPHS and CUSOM students, Reflect Engage Practice Summarize (REPS). Nearly 700 students with more than thirty faculty and staff facilitators attended the event. Students from public health, physical therapy, nursing, pharmacy, physician assistant practice, pharmaceutical sciences, and osteopathic medicine participated in the IPE event. REPS was created based on student feedback from previous IPE events that indicated the desire to learn more about the various roles and responsibilities of members of the healthcare team. This programming opportunity walks students through four steps: REFLECT: Students complete a pre-event and post-event reflection survey that assesses their understanding and comfort level of other healthcare professions. ENGAGE: Student review and learn about the different healthcare professions within CPHS and CUSOM using documents created by faculty from each of the programs. Topics covered about the different healthcare professions include: education and training, roles and responsibilities, interprofessional interactions, and practice settings. PRACTICE: Students gather virtually with faculty/staff facilitators in interprofessional teams of 12-17 students and work through a patient case and discussion questions focusing on communication strategies and teamwork. SUMMARIZE: Interprofessional student groups complete a reference sheet alongside faculty/staff facilitators reflecting on information learned about each healthcare profession. The IPE REPS event is the primary event that students participate in to learn the IPE competency centered on roles and responsibilities. Additionally, the remaining competencies of values/ethics, teams and teamwork, and interprofessional communication are underlying themes. The Office of Interprofessional Education looks forward to hearing all of the new and exciting things students learned about each other’s roles on the interprofessional healthcare team!
Clinical Teaching Conference
The Clinical Teaching Conference is an annual conference presented by the Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine, the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, and the Office of Interprofessional Education. The conference offers clinical educators and preceptors continuing education credit opportunities for attending sessions that are relevant to their work with student and resident learners. The virtual conference style event this year featured a welcome address centered on “Interprofessional Education in North Carolina: Where are We and Where are We Going” followed by numerous breakout sessions on such topics as “Evaluating Student Performance,” “Building a Team of Multiple Learner Types,” “One-minute Preceptor,” “Health Policy Issues of 2021,” and many more. The afternoon featured CME on “Handling Human Trafficking in a Clinical Setting” and “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Clinical Education.” We are grateful for all of those clinical educators and preceptors of Campbell University learners and look forward to providing them this educational opportunity for years to come. Learn more about the conference and register at https://mailchi.mp/a035e95318f1/ campbell-clinical-teaching-conference.
Father/Daughter duo, Steve and Kasey Pfaff, helped make connections between the professions of Public Health and Meteorology.
Public Health Connections
At the beginning of the fall semester, Kasey Pfaff (’26 PharmD/MSPH Candidate) reviewed her MSPH syllabus and saw listed a talk concerning people with disabilities. She immediately took action. Texting Dr. David Tillman, chair of Public Health, she let him know about a great speaker who could present to the class about helping people with disabilities. This speaker has more than 27 years of experience working with people across the country to help provide appropriate information and resources for disabled individuals and their caregivers. “It’s wonderful to have professionals from the community share their knowledge and experience with our students,” said Tillman. “I was very happy that Kasey suggested a speaker who would bring hands-on, pioneering work to the classroom to help us see connections that are often missed between public health and other scientific fields--like meteorology.” When it was time for the speaker’s presentation, Dr. Tillman invited Kasey to make the introduction to the class. “This was the first time I’ve been introduced by a family member,” said Steve Pfaff, Kasey’s dad, as he began addressing the class. Mr. Pfaff serves as a Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) at the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Wilmington, NC, where he is responsible for promoting weather safety outreach and awareness to the public in addition to providing decision support services to Emergency Management as well as a multitude of local, state, and federal partners. Mr. Pfaff has championed work to increase and improve inclement weather and natural disaster communications to people with disabilities and with language barriers. He has collaborated within the NWS, with other government agencies, and with civic and private groups to develop and distribute materials that will resonate with people who have various impairments and whose primary language is not English. Mr. Pfaff travels the country sharing this potentially life-saving information with organizations and consults with fellow experts to keep updated on technology trends and advances that could be used to communicate with disabled persons. He concluded the presentation about the work he has done in the community by leading students through an eye-opening exercise to demonstrate the challenges a person with disabilities would have during a natural disaster. Maxeen Hill (’23 MPSH Candidate) was moved by the presentation and said, “His presentation made me think about the importance of including smaller populations of people who are sometimes overlooked when planning and preparing for disasters.”
Kristen Salyer (’26 PharmD/MSPH Candidate) commented that she took away how relevant weather is as a public health concern and that it was helpful to see the curriculum topics of risk factors and vulnerability applied in a different context. She said, “I like to see how what I am learning in the classroom translates to the real world through people who are in the public health profession.”
