Perceived impact of clinical placements on students' preparedness to provide patient-centered care in Malaysia

Objective: Over the last two decades the pharmacy profession has seen a major revision to patient-focused teaching and practice. This study evaluated the perceived impact of experiential clinical pharmacy placements on students' preparedness to provide patient-centered care. Methods: This cross-sectional study among Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) final-year students used a validated self-administered questionnaire, administered before and after the students' clinical placements undertaken at hospitals. Subjects' responses were rated on a 7-point Likert scale anchored at 1 (not at all) and 7 (very well prepared). The Wilcoxon test was applied to assess the differences in pre- and post-mean scores of individual items. Results: One hundred six students agreed to participate in the study. Despite the low percentage of clinical curricular content coverage, significant augmentation in post-placement overall mean scores in aspects of patient-centered care was found; therapeutic (4.8 vs 3.5; 38.3% change), psycho-social (4.9 vs 4.1, 19.5% change) and communication skills (5.05 vs 3.9, 30.8% change) aspects of patient-centered care were noted. The mean score for each item in the three aspects increased from pre- to post-clinical placements and were statistically significant (p