Small Group Activities

Date: August 2020 - November 2020

Length: 140 minutes per week

Learners: 12 P3 students

Preparation Time: 1-3 hours reviewing patient cases, developing additional questions to ask the students, reviewing lecture notes, providing edits to SOAP notes (practice and 4 graded per student)

Comfort Level: This particular activity was one that I felt relatively comfortable with going into. As a previous student of UAMS College of Pharmacy, I had completed therapeutics recitation and knew the structure and layout of the course. I was also comfortable with the patient cases since I had completed many of them only two years prior. However, I was nervous about being the sole leader of this small group and being asked questions that I would be unable to answer or discuss with another resident.

Teaching Materials:

• Patient cases (provided by instructors)

• Lecture materials (provided by instructors)

• 2 SOAP note example cases

• In-class discussion

Methods to Assess Learner Understanding:

• Patient case checklist (provided by instructors)

• Case presentation rubric (provided by instructors)

• SOAP note rubric (provided by instructors)

• Questions asked by students after case presentations

• Questions asked by resident after case presentations

Teaching Goals Addressed:

• Goal 1: Promote the engagement of learners in active discussion and critical thinking by using a variety of learning activities.

• Goal 2: Develop effective communication skills to deliver information to small and large groups.

• Goal 3: Effectively provide constructive feedback to learners including strengths and areas for growth.

Reflection:

Overall, I felt like this one was of the most valuable teaching experiences I was involved in throughout my year of residency. I was quite nervous in the beginning due to the class being fully virtual and being the sole leader of the group but I felt like it pushed me out of my comfort zone in a positive way. I was able to have one-on-one conversations with the students after their presentations to see where they thought they needed improvement and where they thought they did well. This helped focus my attention when grading and helped me to provide feedback that was more personal and meaningful to the students. I would also ask them if they had any tips for things that I could do differently and received feedback about going over the cases after the presentations were completed. I was able to take this feedback and incorporate it into the following classes so that no student left feeling confused.

One of the challenges I faced was that I was to grade based off of a rubric for both the case presentations and the SOAP notes. At the beginning I struggled with thinking in a black and white manner instead of using the rubric as a guide to assess the students understanding. After grading the first round of SOAP notes and discussing the grades with the other instructors, I was afraid that I was grading more harshly than the other recitation leaders. However, after I discussed the cases with my class and gave them time to ask questions, most students were then understanding of the grades they received. I did take this into consideration when I graded the second round of SOAP notes and made sure to provide more detailed feedback if I was taking off points in an area.

As the semester progressed, I felt like my ability to provide meaningful feedback and assess a student's presentation improved as I gained more confidence in myself as an instructor. I was very receptive of the feedback I received from the students as well as the faculty member and wanted to continue to grow in a way that would make recitation a valuable experience for the students. I believe this was a great start to small group teaching and providing me with a strong foundation. As I move forward as an educator, I would like to include more interactive activities (games/handouts/drawing on the board) to help engage the students in discussion as well as provide additional ways of learning the information.

Stroke Prevention With the PCSK9 (Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin-Kexin Type 9) Inhibitor Evolocumab Added to Statin in High-Risk Patients With Stable Atherosclerosis

Date: July 27, 2020

Length: 20-25 minutes

Learners: ~20 pharmacy staff, residents, and preceptors at CAVHS

Preparation Time: 8 hours to review article, background articles, develop a handout, and practice

Comfort Level: With this being my first presentation as a resident, I was very nervous. I also had not given a presentation virtually before so having the meeting over Skype was a component that added to my nerves. However, I spent extra time preparing for potential questions and making sure I fully understood the article so that I would be comfortable with the material.

Teaching Materials:

• Handout

• Journal Article

Methods to Assess Learner Understanding:

• Questions asked by audience after the presentation

Angiotensin-Neprilysin Inhibition and Renal Outcomes in Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction

Date: December 16, 2020

Length: 20-25 minutes

Learners: ~20 pharmacy staff, residents, and preceptors at CAVHS

Preparation Time: 6-8 hours to review article, background articles, develop a handout, and practice

Comfort Level: As this was half-way through my residency year, I had become more comfortable with presenting virtually to a larger group of individuals. I made sure that I allowed myself enough time to become very familiar with the topic to prepare myself for potential questions.

Teaching Materials:

• Handout

• Journal Article

Methods to Assess Learner Understanding:

• Questions asked by audience after the presentation

Reflection:

I was given a couple of opportunities during pharmacy school to develop a handout for a journal club and present the information. However, these were only presented to my preceptor and the other students on rotation. I was nervous that I would not perform at the level that was expected of me so I worked extra hard to make sure I was confident in the material being presented.

During these two presentations I was able to address my teaching goal of utilizing effect communication skills to deliver information to small and large groups. My first journal club presentation went well based on evaluations I received. However, I felt as if I was too nervous and knew that I had a lot of room for improvement. Some of the feedback I received regarding my communications skills included “spoke very clearly”, “presented with confidence with a good tone/volume”, “While presenting, Rachel was interactive with the material by pointing to specific stats with her cursor, which really helped her audience follow along” However, there were suggestions on how to further improve my presentation skills, including “You could have condensed your conclusion by focusing on your subjective “take-away” rather than reiterating results of the study”, “Used a few filler words, but not distracting”, “mispronunciation of some words”, “information overload”. The feedback provided allowed me to see areas in which I could use more improvement as well as areas where I was doing well. I then used this feedback in order to prepare for additional journal clubs.

For my journal club presented in December, I was much more confident in my knowledge of the topic and felt more confident it my abilities to present the material in an effective manner. I was able to use previous feedback and tailor my handout to me more concise and appealing to the eye, which helped the audience stay engaged. Some of the positive feedback I received included: "Good pace and tone. Was well-prepared for questions - able to compare to other trials investigating similar drugs/outcomes", "Good handout, seemed VERY prepared and at ease in discussion. Answered questions thoroughly/ appropriately", "Good presentation skills, well paced, and appropriate eye contact.", and "Handout well-organized, free of typos. Confident response to questions". I also received some constructive feedback including: "When reviewing the results, she began speaking quickly. This made it somewhat difficult to process the information while trying to listen" and "Pace was fast and could make it hard to follow, especially for someone who doesn't have familiarity with the topic." I plan to use this feedback to continue to improve upon my presentation skills so that I am able to deliver information in the most effective way.