Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: For pharmacy students to assess their change in confidence in applying research design and methodology topics after an educational session.
METHODS: A retrospective pre-/post-survey was administered after each of three sessions. Each survey asked for demographic information related to the participant’s pharmacy year and research background, then presented a total of 10 questions related to the session’s topic. Five questions evaluated the participants’ confidence before the session, and five questions evaluated the participants’ confidence after the session. All questions asked participants to rank their perceived confidence on five different concepts covered during each session using a 10-point scale (1 = lowest and 10 = highest). During each session, a facilitator first presented an article, then an application-based scenario. The sessions covered the topics of study design and outcome description, Pharmacoeconomics, and statistical analyses. Paired t-tests were conducted to determine differences between pre- and post-survey. This research was deemed exempt from the university’s institutional review board.
RESULTS: Overall, there were no significant differences from pre- to post-confidence for any session (all p-values > 0.05). The number of participants for each session ranged from 3 to 6. Session 1 had pre-session averages ranging from 7.5 to 8 and post-averages ranged from 9.25 to 9.5. Session 2 had pre-session averages ranging from 8 to 9 and post-averages ranged from 8 to 8.33. Session 3 had pre-session averages ranging from 7.5 to 8 and post-averages ranged from 9.25 to 9.5.
CONCLUSIONS: No significant differences in confidence were determined for any session. A small sample size and high pre-session confidence in the topics may have affected the findings. Future research will examine gaining a larger attendance to each session and exploring participants' actual knowledge of these topics compared to perceived confidence in understanding and applying these topics.