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Undergraduate pharmacy students at Keele University are interacting
with virtual patients in order to practise their communication skills
and
to see how their decisions might affect real patients.
The school of pharmacy
at Keele has created a computer-generated three-dimensional
character that simulates clinical scenarios. The system uses voice recognition
technology that allows students to communicate with the avatar, which
responds from a library of language and a range of gestures to indicate
emotions such as pain, stress and anxiety.
Steve Chapman, head of the school of pharmacy at Keele University, which
opened in September 2006, explains that the virtual patient offers an
on-demand service for students, who can go through the decision-making
process several times, making different choices (and mistakes), in a
safe environment.
It can be used by individuals or as part of interprofessional
group learning. It can also be used by distance learners via the internet
by typing questions into a standard computer interface, he says.
Speech is analysed and matched against probable questions to generate
an appropriate response from the avatar. Patient cases are created by
developing a decision tree, which incorporates both clinical experience
and published evidence to create a realistic scenario.
Professor Chapman points out that cases can be designed to explore scenarios
involving patients that differ in age, ethnicity and gender so that students
can appreciate when these factors are relevant to the choice of treatment.
After the consultation, the virtual patient provides feedback to students
on how the consultation went, whether they asked the right questions
and if they gave appropriate advice.
The avatar can also track the student’s head position (via a headset)
throughout the consultation to assess whether eye contact was maintained.
The consultation is recorded so that the student and lecturer can review
it and analyse performance.
“My ambition is that each MPharm student will be allocated an avatar,
which ages [at a faster rate than normal] throughout the four-year course,” says
Professor Chapman.
A large amount of patient contact, be it virtual or real, is one of the
innovative features of the MPharm at Keele, according to Professor Chapman.
Undergraduates are exposed to simulated patients (actors trained to portray
certain conditions) and expert (real) patients from an early stage with
the aim of instilling professional attitudes and values. Placements will
be undertaken in community and hospital pharmacies, walk-in centres,
medical practices and primary care trusts.
Interprofessional problem-based learning is another strong area for Keele.
Professor Chapman emphasises that the school of pharmacy is part of the
university’s vibrant faculty of health — which includes a
medical school, nursing and midwifery, and health and rehabilitation — allowing
plenty of scope for
interaction. Postgraduate programmes
Postgraduate courses at the school are also offered in an innovative
way. After a recent review, programmes have been broken down into smaller
chunks, called CPD Plus+ modules, to allow greater flexibility. In
addition, a new advanced professional practice programme was launched
at the end of January, explains Pat Black, director of postgraduate
studies.
The advanced programme allows pharmacists and other healthcare professionals,
particularly medical and non-medical prescribers working in primary care,
flexibility in obtaining a certificate, diploma or masters. Postgraduates
can choose modules from across the school’s main programmes, including
community and hospital pharmacy, and prescribing studies.
But they can
also choose modules from other schools within the faculty of health
and from other faculties within the university
Prior learning from NPC Plus therapeutic workshops (see below) can
also contribute towards obtaining the academic awards, says Ms Black.
NPC Plus collaboration with Keele
University
NPC
Plus officially became a department within the
school of pharmacy at Keele University on 1 July 2006. It was initially
developed by
the National Prescribing Centre, a Department of Health-funded
NHS body, as a pilot to test whether it would be viable to meet
the increasing
demand for prescribing and medicines management support through
a revenue generating venture.
The pilot proved to be successful and it became clear that the
NPC needed a partner to share the risks and benefits of further
development
as well as to add value in terms of experience and resources, explains
Clive Jackson, chief executive at the NPC. With its well-established
department of medicines management, Keele was considered to have
the optimum range of necessary expertise, he says.
The department of medicines management at Keele has been working
with West Midlands Strategic Health Authority for over 10 years,
providing services and advice on investment and disinvestment in
medicine, professional development and medicines policy. NPC Plus
intends to deliver some of these initiatives to a wider geographical
audience.
Since the partnership was formed, NPC Plus has extended its portfolio
of services. It is still significantly supporting the NHS but now
provides medicines management support for others, including community
pharmacists and the pharmaceutical industry.
“Working with
Keele has also allowed us to consider options such as accreditation
of training and formal research,” explains
Mr Jackson. NPC Plus has three core elements: the Medicines Partnership
Programme; prescribing support and development; and commissioning
and service development.
“Our unique relationship with Keele allows us to draw on both the
NPC’s national reputation for delivering high quality
prescribing support and Keele’s expertise in medicines
management,” Trudy
Granby, assistant director for prescribing support and development,
points out. She adds that NPC Plus is currently planning a
series of workshops that will combine both therapeutics and
concordance.
“Because
of the way that pharmacy is evolving there is a need for more
targeted therapeutic, concordance and medicines management
skills,” she
explains. Mr Jackson adds that NPC Plus is a means by which
support can be localised whereas the NPC, by its nature, needs
to deliver
to a broad audience across England.
Professor Chapman believes that the collaboration with NPC
Plus keeps the school fresh. “Having NPC Plus within the school
of pharmacy means that we can get people in who are at the cutting
edge of some of these health service initiatives to discuss with
the students the sorts of things that they are doing.” |
NPCi The NPC has recently launched a free electronic
resource called NPCi (www.npci.org.uk), which contains small chunks
of the best of the summarised evidence and information on commonly
encountered topics.
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal