Cutler, S (2020) Teaching teamwork to undergraduate pharmacy students - What are the issues? Doctoral thesis, Liverpool John Moores University.

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Abstract

Poor teamwork skills in healthcare have been found to be a contributing cause of negative incidents in patient care, whilst effective teamwork has been linked to more positive patient outcomes. This programme of work aimed to evaluate how to better prepare undergraduate pharmacy students for their future roles in interprofessional teams. The programme of work consisted of four qualitative phases. Phases 1 and 2 involved focus group to explore characteristics of an effective interprofessional team from the perspective of 14 patients and informal caregivers, and 19 pharmacy students. Student views on opportunities to develop teamwork characteristics within their Masters of Pharmacy programme were also explored. Phase 3 consisted of semi-structured interviews with ten educators involved in the design and/or delivery of pharmacy curricula, to establish their perceptions on key teamwork characteristics and how undergraduates were prepared for working in interprofessional teams. The final phase triangulated the findings from phases 1-3 to provide a comprehensive account of key teamwork characteristics and to inform recommendations for curriculum development for pharmacy students. Analyses identified several key teamwork characteristics including communication, understanding their own role and the role of others, leadership, hierarchies and compassion. Communication, role understanding mutual trust and respect and the need for a team leader were considered to be key by all participants. The need for improvements in communication was highlighted by patients. Pharmacy curriculums should clearly identify how teamwork is taught to pharmacy students. Teamwork-focussed learning outcomes and objectives should be explicit for associated teaching, learning and assessments. Interprofessional education, experiential and simulation-based learning were considered beneficial and suitable mechanisms to be better prepare students for future practice in interprofessional teams. Supplemental clinical funding is required to facilitate experiential learning opportunities that would align pharmacy education with other healthcare education degrees.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	teamwork; pharmacy students; interprofessional education; experiential learning
Subjects:	L Education > L Education (General) L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education R Medicine > RS Pharmacy and materia medica
Divisions:	Pharmacy & Biomolecular Sciences
Date Deposited:	17 Nov 2020 09:45
Last Modified:	31 Aug 2022 10:35
DOI or ID number:	10.24377/LJMU.t.00014001
Supervisors:	Morecroft, C, Carey, P and Kennedy, T
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/14001

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