Background Medication reconciliation is an essential clinical pharmacy activity that requires appropriate knowledge, skills and behaviours. For this purpose, a simulation training programme on best possible medication history and medication reconciliation was developed for clinical pharmacy students.

Purpose To evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the training.

Material and methods Over 1 year, 2 pharmacists trained all clinical pharmacy students. The training programme was divided into 3 parts: (1) theoretical part; (2) simulation session using the ‘standardised patient’s method’; and (3) tutored practice in the clinical unit. The effectiveness of training was evaluated by the achievement of the first 3 levels of the Kirkpatrick model: ‘reactions’ using a satisfaction survey; ‘learning’ using a knowledge quiz before and 1 month after training; and ‘behaviours’, observed by trainers with a competency sheet. Regarding statistical analysis, Z score for paired data was used (α=0.05).

Results 39 students performing their pharmacy internship in 8 clinical units received the training. Statistical analysis showed a significant difference between the quiz’s mean score obtained before and after training (13.96/20 vs 17.67/20, Z=13.13, p<5x10^-10). All students were deemed competent to formalise a comprehensive best possible medication history. Regarding students’ satisfaction, 95% of participants were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with the training programme. The content, organisation, difficulty level and the trainers’ availability satisfied more than 97.8% of students. Overall, 100.0% felt that they had acquired new knowledge and that this training will cause a change in their daily professional practice, and 97.3% would like to make it systematic. From an organisational viewpoint, the training was easy to implement. The limiting factor was the time spent by the two trainers. Indeed, this activity was added to the clinical pharmacists’ daily work.

Conclusion This training let us to standardise students’ medication reconciliation learning in our hospital. It appears to be effective and feasible training. Simulation is an innovative, playful and relevant tool. It allows the combination of 3 essential qualities needed for good medication reconciliation practice: knowledge, skills and behaviours. In future, this training will be extended to other professionals, such as hospital pharmacy technicians.

No conflict of interest