Student Pharmacists’ Ability to Organize Complex Medication Regimens According to the Universal Medication Schedule

Objective. Pharmacists are medication experts with the capability and expertise to impact medication management and improve patient care, particularly when polypharmacy is present. This study aims to assess student pharmacists’ ability to impact the administration of complex prescription regimens using the universal medication schedule in a standardized laboratory exercise. Methods. P1 and P3 student pharmacists across three colleges of pharmacy completed a required activity during a laboratory sequence to simplify and organize a complex medication regimen. Students organized how and when they would advise a patient to take seven fictitious medications with distinct instructions over a 24-hour period using a medication box. Picture documentation of each students’ activity was used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to compare P1 versus P3 students’ performance, and an independent t-test assessed the frequency of daily dosing. A chi-square analysis was used to compare differences between P1 and P3 students, and analysis of variance was used to compare differences among individual institutions. Results. There were 459 P1 and 372 P3 students (98.7% RR; 831 total) that consented to participate. Student pharmacists recommended a mean of 5.1 (SD 1.0; Range 3 – 11) dosing intervals per 24 hours with 27% of students successfully organizing the regimen to 4 total intervals. P3 students were more effective than P1 students at the total frequency in dosing (4.89 vs. 5.35 per 24 hours). Conclusion. Student pharmacists gain more effectiveness organizing complex medication regimens with curricular experience. Student pharmacists can translate this exercise to potentially improve patients’ self-organized medication regimens.