Empowering Student Pharmacists to Counsel Patients on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals through Interactive Role-Play.

Preparing the next generation of pharmacists to succeed in practice and provide premier care starts with ensuring pharmacy education standards are met and align with innovative practices and that education incorporates topics that are important to promoting health. For example, recent reports link endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) to numerous diseases such as reproductive disorders, metabolic diseases, and developmental abnormalities. Considering the suboptimal awareness and knowledge about EDCs, it is imperative to provide public health education through a pharmacy curriculum. The objective of this study was to evaluate student pharmacists' perceptions of the impact of a role play activity on their knowledge of EDCs and counseling skills. A secondary objective was to explore student pharmacists' perceptions of how role play might impact their future career as a pharmacist. A retrospective qualitative study consisting of a lecture, a pre-brief, a low-fidelity simulation centered on role-play, and debrief to develop knowledge of EDCs to practice counseling skills, and a post reflection was implemented to explore this aim. Third year student pharmacists who were enrolled on the public health elective course were eligible to participate in the study. All reflections were de-identified, imported into a qualitative software, Dedoose