Volume 4 • Issue 5 • 1000188
J Pharma Care Health Sys JPCHS, an open access journal
ISSN: 2376-0419
Research Article Open Access
El Melik et al., J Pharma Care Health Sys 2017, 4:5
DOI: 10.4172/2376-0419.1000188
Research Article Open Access
Journal of
Pharmaceutical Care & Health Systems
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ISSN: 2376-0419
Keywords: Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE);
Evidence based practice rotation; MERS- CoV, Pharmacy; Teaching
Introduction
In August 2015 and just before the start of the Advanced Pharmacy
Practice Experience (APPE) rotation for the fourth professional year
pharmacy students, the hospital in King Abdulaziz Medical City
(KAMC) in Riyadh declared the spread of the “Middle East Respiratory
Syndrome coronavirus” or MERS-CoV among its staff and patients.
e virus was first isolated in September, 2012 from a patient in Saudi
Arabia and has a high fatality rate and clinical features that resemble a
severe acute respiratory syndrome [1].
is necessitated an elective shutdown of parts of the institution
including the emergency department, the suspension of all patient
admissions, and an early discharge for stable patients along with a
number of preventive measures. All students and faculty were asked
to refrain from visiting KAMC or any of its recreational facilities.
Similarly, practicing clinical preceptors were prevented from coming
in contact with faculty and students in the university campus. All
these were temporary measures in an attempt to stop the spread of this
disease in the tertiary care hospital and on campus that houses 6 health
schools. When hospital faculty had to deliver lectures to students were
done via video conferencing.
In lieu of cancelling the first APPE rotation and delaying
students graduation, the college of pharmacy instead debated many
alternatives and eventually decided to offer an “Evidence Based
practice rotation” that will strengthen the students active learning
and individualized problem solving techniques prior to subsequent
clinical rotations. Moreover, by incorporating good understanding of
research and statistical evidence into this rotation one would expect
the gained students’ knowledge and clinical expertise to facilitate a
full comprehension of the published therapeutic protocols which the
preceptors of this rotation had intended to review systematically. is
notion was supported in the pharmacy literature where using active
learning techniques, journal club, and literature evaluation exercises
improved the performance of students on APPE rotations [2].
e aim of this paper is to describe the development and evaluation of
Evidence Based Practice (EBP) as an unconventional Advanced Pharmacy
Practice Experience rotation during the MERS-CoV epidemic.
King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC) and King Saud Bin
Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU)
King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-
HS) operates under the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs
along with King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC). e latter houses
the National Guard Health Affairs hospitals which are highly regarded
medical complexes in the region. KSAU-HS is located in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia and houses 6 colleges which include: Medicine, Pharmacy,
Dentistry, Nursing, Public Health and Health Informatics, and
Applied Medical Sciences. e College of pharmacy at KSAU-HS has
a collaborative agreement with the University of Tennessee College of
pharmacy that permits the former to receive and teach its pharmacy
curriculum leading to the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree.
*Corresponding author: Wesam W Ismail, College of Pharmacy, King Saud bin
Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tel: +966-59 878
0188; E-mail: ismailw@ksau-hs.edu.sa
Received October 02, 2017; Accepted October 24, 2017; Published October 30,
2017
Citation: El Melik RM, Ismail WW, Aburuz S, Bustami R, Albekairy MA, et
al. (2017) Evaluation of an Evidence Based Practice Rotation for Advanced
Pharmacy Practice Experience in Response to MERS-Cov Epidemic as a Result of
Temporary Hospital Closure. J Pharma Care Health Sys 4: 188. doi:10.4172/2376-
0419.1000188
Copyright: © 2017 El Melik RM, et al. This is an open-access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background: Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) rotations during the fourth professional year
are mandatory for PharmD students for graduation. This paper aims to describe the development and evaluation of
evidence based practice (EBP) as an unconventional APPE rotation during the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome
coronavirus (MERS-CoV) epidemic and temporary hospital shutdown.
Procedure: Eight fourth professional year pharmacy students were enrolled in EBP rotation for four weeks.
Students received a midpoint evaluation to improve their performance as well as a final evaluation at the end of
the rotation. In addition, a comprehensive survey was administered to all students before and after EBP rotation.
The survey consisted of 17 items to assess students’ perception about their skills and knowledge in EBP rotation
activities as well as overall knowledge.
Findings: There was a strong evidence that EBP rotation substantially improved (p<0.001) students’ perception
of their level of knowledge/skills about several pharmacy practice related skills and activities.
Conclusion: Although development of EBP rotation was under unforeseen circumstances, this study proposes
that implementation of an EBP rotation into APPE clerkships may result in favorable outcomes.
Evaluation of an Evidence Based Practice Rotation for Advanced Pharmacy
Practice Experience in Response to MERS-Cov Epidemic as a Result of
Temporary Hospital Closure
El Melik RM, Ismail WW*, Aburuz S, Bustami R, Albekairy MA and Khalidi N
King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia