Background: Providing patient-centred care requires pharmacy students to learn how to interact effectively and\nunderstand individual differences that can influence patients� health. The School of Pharmacy at The University of\nAuckland, New Zealand (NZ), developed a virtual teaching platform, called NZ Pharmville, which consisted of\ntwenty-one community-based patients who are members of six families; each family had a video vignette\nassociated with it. Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) students, enrolled in the third year pharmacy practice course,\nwere able to view these recorded vignettes as part of their weekly pre-laboratory work for the course. All the\nclinical cases within the course were based on this community, with the aim of increasing the realism in the\npractical sessions and increasing patient-centred learning. This study aimed to explore the perspectives of\npharmacy students regarding the integration of this virtual community into a third year undergraduate pharmacy\npractice course.\nMethods: An anonymous, voluntary survey which consisted of twenty-one items, 13 requiring a Likert scale\nresponse and 8 requiring free text responses, was distributed to all students who had completed the third year\npharmacy practice course. The responses to the questions were collated and analysed. Responses to questions one\nto thirteen were recorded in Excel, and results were presented as the combination of strongly agree and agree,\nstrongly disagree and disagree and neutral. Responses to free text questions were read multiple times before being\ncoded by two members of the research team into broad themes aligned to the overall aims of the evaluation.\nResults: Eighty-six (80.4 %) of the eligible students completed the survey and the majority of responses were\npositive towards the benefits of using the virtual community in the course. Responses indicated that many of the\nstudents found the integration of the virtual community to be useful preparation for their practical sessions and the\nmajority of students felt that the vignettes made it easier to develop empathy for the patients rather than reading\nabout them.\nConclusion: The use of virtual communities, for example, NZ Pharmville, show promise as a platform to aid in\nteaching and learning. The resources in NZ Pharmville allow students ongoing access to patient video clips that\nattempt to depict a real life situation, and enable students to engage with the fictional characters. The virtual\ncommunity provided an educational experience which was well received by students. This teaching method\nappeared to promote active patient-centered learning and allowed students to reflect on and revisit these skills on\na weekly basis.
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