Cohort July 2023: Pharmaceutical Sciences – Karen Dahri, Simroop Ladhar, Ingrid Frank, Jasdeep Gill
Project background
The Entry-to-Practice Doctor of Pharmacy (E2P PharmD) program is a four-year undergraduate program designed to offer a comprehensive education in pharmaceutical sciences. Throughout the program, students are presented with a sequence of medication management courses that serve as the foundation of their learning. These courses are tailored to each year level and are organized into modules corresponding to various body systems (e.g., cardiology, respirology). Each medication management course is 15 to 18 credits per semester and is composed of both mandatory in-person modules, which include lectures and integration activities such as tutorials and patient cases. This combination of instructional approaches ensures a well-rounded and immersive educational experience for future pharmacists.
In the second year of the program, during the first term, the medication management course begins with the Respirology Module. This module equips students with comprehensive knowledge on effectively managing respiratory conditions, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In the management of respiratory conditions, inhaled medications serve as the cornerstone of therapy. However, their utilization significantly contributes to carbon emissions generated by the healthcare industry. For example, Liang et al. (2023) reported that approximately 21.8% of the total carbon emissions in the Fraser Health Authority region of British Columbia can be directly attributed to the use of pressurized metered dose inhalers (pMDI). In addition to exacerbating climate change, these excessive carbon emissions have detrimental effects on both health and valuable resources.
Project details
Our student-led faculty project aims to redesign the E2P PharmD Respirology Module by integrating educational activities such as video animations, lectures, and infographics that will highlight the environmental issues around inhaler use and the consequences of their emissions. We will discuss how pharmacists can intervene and promote sustainability while ensuring patients with respiratory conditions receive necessary care.
The goal of this project is to make the changes to the Respirology Module curriculum, to ensure that graduates of the E2P PharmD program will be well equipped to make positive changes towards an environmentally sustainable healthcare system while still providing optimal care to their patients. The current curriculum of the PharmD program does not incorporate learning about sustainable pharmaceutical use. Additionally, given the prevalence of respirology conditions in the general population and abundance of medications to treat such conditions, as a secondary objective we will be updating the current module content to ensure all content is in line with current research.
A partnership is essential for our proposed project because a student lens will provide insightful information on both what students want to learn and also how they learn best. Further, having a chance to work in partnership with the faculty allows a learning opportunity for both students and faculty members. This is because students get to see how course content is put together and faculty gets to learn more about the student perspective. Overall, having both students and faculty on our team is essential for the project’s success.