A STUDY OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SELF-INSTRUCTIONAL PHARMACY MANAGEMENT MATERIALS IN A STRUCTURED EXTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE WITH PRECEPTORS AS TEACHERS

TERRY LEE HAGEBOECK, Purdue University

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility and appropriateness of using the community externship setting as an off-campus, college directed, self-instructional educational experience. Four general questions were addressed: (1) Would externs accept and use the prepared materials? (2) Would preceptors accept and use the prepared materials? (3) Could preceptors be used as resource persons for the externs? and (4) Could preceptors and externs be encouraged to increase the exchange of management-related ideas and information? Fifty-one students enrolled in the Butler University College of Pharmacy externship program were selected as the sample population. A treatment group of 30 students was selected and the remaining 21 students served as the control group. All students were tested prior to the beginning of the 1980 externship program and again following its completion. The preceptors in the treatment group were asked to utilize student self-study materials in the program they offered each extern. Individual packets of self-instructional material in the areas of financial management, pricing and inventory, and personnel management were supplied to the externs and preceptors in the treatment group. The externs' pharmacy management knowledge was measured before and after the externship experience. An increase in cognitive knowledge was not proven statistically; however, selected data suggested that the treatment group performed better than the control group. Extern attitudes about business were measured and compared with the attitudes expressed by the preceptors. Treatment and control groups shared the same attitude prior to externship as did the preceptors. At the conclusion of the externship program, the attitudes expressed by the treatment group externs matched the preceptor attitudes more closely (r = 0.86) than did the attitudes of the control group externs (r = 0.57). The use of self-instructional pharmacy management modules during the externship experience is a teaching methodology worth additional exploration. The study concluded that such self-study materials will need to be sequenced with classroom instruction and carefully integrated into the externship program in order to maximize their effectiveness.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Pharmaceuticals

Off-Campus Purdue Users:
To access this dissertation, please log in to our
proxy server
.

Share

COinS