Evaluation of Student Outcomes After Participating in a Medicare Outreach Program

This article describes the development of a service-learning project and analysis of student pharmacists ’ participation therein. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study analyzed student pharmacists ’ knowledge and attitudes after volunteering in the inaugural Medicare Outreach Program, a collaboration between the School of Pharmacy and State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) in which certified student pharmacists assisted Medicare beneficiaries with Part D plan evaluation and selec-tion. Although results did not show a statistically significant dif-ference in knowledge gained by students who volunteered (n = 71) compared to those who did not (n = 72; p = 0.57), thematic analysis of volunteering students ’ reflections did reveal that they found their volunteering efforts to be meaningful learning experiences. Six major themes were identified overall showin