Virtual simulation to personalize student learning in a required pharmacy course

Virtual simulation is used to provide a realistic and safe environment for student pharmacists to learn and practice a variety of skills in the didactic and experiential settings. The simulation program, MyDispense, that is used to teach medication dispensing in the outpatient setting was incorporated into a 2-credit hour required first-year pharmacy practice skills course. A total of 30 optional and 16 required exercises were completed by students. There was a total of 2,457 attempts (mean = 28.9 attempts per student) at optional practice exercises and students completed an average of 16.6 ± 7.9 (range 1–30). While variation in the number of optional practice exercises completed was observed between students with varying levels of pharmacy experience, the difference was not statistically significant. A component of the final exam utilized the virtual simulation program and all students passed this portion of the exam based on a minimum requirement of 70.0% (mean 92.9%, range 74.5–100%). Students generally identified that the use of virtual simulation was an effective tool to learn medication dispensing skills in a classroom setting. Furthermore, this created an opportunity for pharmacy practice residents to develop teaching skills. The biggest barrier to implementation was the amount of time required to create and test each exercise. The virtual simulation program allowed students to self-identify the amount of practice they thought was necessary in order to gain specific skills related to medication dispensing.