title: Integration of pharmacy students within a level II trauma center.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To integrate fourth-year doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students within a level II trauma center team to improve their patient care and professional communication skills.
  
  
  METHODS
  PharmD students completed 2 consecutive 4-week internal medicine APPEs during the course of their fourth year, which included approximately 5 weeks working on an interprofessional trauma team. During patient rounds with the interprofessional trauma team, students provided patient care in a stepwise approach, drug information responses, patient counseling, and other services requested by team members.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ability-based outcomes (ABOs) assessment, faculty evaluations, and student self-assessment were conducted in the following areas: effective communication, drug therapy assessment and decision making, critical thinking and problem solving, and drug information retrieval. Students' mean score in these areas was 3.8 on a 5-point scale. Areas in which students needed improvement included: providing recommendations in a timely manner, self-confidence, identifying opportunity to verbally communicate with other team members, and addressing insecurities when answering drug information questions posed by the team.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Integrating fourth-year PharmD students within a trauma and acute surgery team and use of ABO assessment allowed for identification of areas of the curriculum in which improvements were needed, resulting in a more targeted approach earlier in the curriculum to improve students' abilities to provide appropriate and effective patient care in an interprofessional setting.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, University of Wyoming, Laramie, 82071, USA. jpetrie@uwyo.edu
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Petrie
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D003142:Communication; D003376:Counseling / Q000379:methods; D003479:Curriculum; D004346:Drug Information Services; D004512:Education, Pharmacy / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods; D005178:Faculty; D006801:Humans; D005791:Patient Care; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013339:Students, Pharmacy; D014193:Trauma Centers; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000188:drug therapy*