Teaching and learning through role-play
When it comes to fun yet practical and effective teaching and learning tactics, Dr. Leslie Phillips is seriously yet lightheartedly in the game.
As the recipient of the 2010 President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, she used her award funds and worked with a colleague (Dr. Carla Dillon) to develop and produce “Med Heads” – a role-playing game where students perform as either a patient or pharmacist, and enact patient counseling scenarios.
“All the credit for this idea really goes to Dr. Karen Sando and her colleagues at the University of Florida, who presented at the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Annual Meeting in July 2012,” Dr. Phillips confesses. “Her group won the AACP Innovations in Teaching Award for developing a game called ‘Medication Mysteries Infinite Case Tool’, which referenced the challenges of continually having to come up with new patient-simulated cases to teach their students.”
Three different types of cards simulate pharmacist-patient interactions
Med Heads contains three decks of cards – character cards, which are a set of potential patient personality or character traits, drug cards, which represent the medications the patient is taking, and conundrum cards, which feature various scenarios involving drug-related issues.
The character cards allow students to learn to become comfortable with diverse and sometimes unsettling personalities – a situation they will repeatedly encounter in their careers. The student playing the role of the patient must assume the persona displayed on their card during the medication interview.
The drug cards are colour-coded by disease state, to allow instructors to select only certain categories of drugs if they choose. This permits them to tailor the game for different courses and alter its level of difficulty so that students from first year to final year can utilize the game.
The conundrum cards present potentially-troublesome scenarios, such as patients lowering doses on their own because they thought they were having a side-effect, or stopping a medication altogether because they can’t afford it.
The student playing the pharmacist must interview the patient to determine which medications they are taking, why they are taking them and if there are any problems. With196 potential drug cards representing the most commonly prescribed medications, students become more exposed to and familiar with these drugs.
“A big part of being a pharmacist means being accessible, empathetic, and compassionate to patients so that they feel comfortable talking to you,” explains Dr. Phillips, who is a strong advocate of experiential learning tactics. “The game allows students to practice the art of connecting with patients so they can collect thorough medication histories and identify any drug-related problems patients may have.”
“They’re learning and they don’t even realize it”
Dr. Phillips believes that one of the best ways to learn is to have fun while doing it.
“The students are learning while in a relaxed, no-pressure situation. They’re learning and they don’t even realize it. I mean, how could you not have fun if you drew cards that required you to play the role of (or have to successfully manage) a flirtatious patient on a drug for genital herpes who was perhaps sharing their meds with a friend?” she laughs.
Her teaching philosophy is composed of four simple rules – love what you do, find the connection between what students want and what they need, understand that there is more than one way to learn and always try new things, and put your self out of business.
“While I was studying at UBC, I remember one of my mentors telling me that if pharmacists really did their jobs the way they were supposed to, they’d all be out of work because they’d have prevented all the drug-related problems from happening in the first place,” she elaborates on her last rule.
“There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing the proverbial light bulb come on over a student’s head. That moment when you sit at patient care rounds with them and listen as they make a recommendation on a patient’s drug therapy, or sit with a patient and carefully go over their discharge medications, making sure they understand what they’re for and how to take them – you realize they’re ready. They don’t need you anymore.”
Fortunately for her, every September brings a new crop of eager minds and the opportunity to start with a fresh set of players.