Effect of an experiential exercise in diabetes management on pharmacy students' fear and perceived pain of injection and fingertip lancing.
OBJECTIVE
To determine if a diabetes management exercise would change pharmacy students' fear and perceived pain associated with injection and fingertip lancing.


METHODS
Before and after a 1-week experiential exercise of living with diabetes, students completed questionnaires measuring fear of injection and self-testing and recorded the level of perceived pain associated with injection and fingertip lancing. Anticipated (baseline) and experienced (follow-up) scores were compared.


RESULTS
Forty students returned both baseline and follow-up survey instruments. Reported levels of fear decreased significantly for self-injection (p<0.0001) and self-testing (p=0.0089) after the exercise. Experienced pain was also significantly lower than anticipated pain for both injection (p<0.0001) and fingertip lancing (p=0.013). Experienced pain of injection was significantly lower than fingertip lancing (p=0.017).


CONCLUSIONS
Participation in the exercise significantly reduced pharmacy students' fear and perceived pain associated with injection and fingertip lancing. Students can use information gained from their experiences when helping patients manage diabetes.
Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Amitjeet
A
Sahnan
Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Scot H
SH
Simpson
D015190:Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring / Q000523:psychology*; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000097:blood*; D019468:Disease Management; D004512:Education, Pharmacy / Q000379:methods; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005385:Fingers; D006801:Humans; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology*; D013339:Students, Pharmacy / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
Experiential education; diabetes; pharmacy students