Drug information skills— Opinion
Drug information is not only an information, but more of a set of skills. Student pharmacists have limited time in their curriculum to learn about drug information and biomedical evaluation. Most of these skills could be acquired when they go into IPPE and APPE rotations. However, it varies between institutions and sites about how these skills are delivered and taught. It is up to the students to learn by themselves and apply drug information as much as they could.
As an educator, I think we should educate students more on the topic to help them better prepared before going to rotations, and work force.
How and where to find reliable evidence? From what I’ve seen so far, students only know about sources that are taught in school, or available at their site of practice. Many know about Lexicomp or UpToDate, but what to go next if you cannot find the information you need?
Google is the very first place that comes to our mind, even though not many students truly know how to evaluate a health website.
These days, students usually rely too much on clinical decision support system or forget to double check reliability and accuracy of information. The fact that information publishing on a well-known source does not mean that they are true. Instead, you should understand strengths and weaknesses of every resources to help you find the best health information available.
In addition, school library already purchased a lot of useful resources, but students don’t even know about them or how to make good use of them. Ever heard of Embase, EbscoHost, IPA, Ovid, or Proquest? If you are not familiar with these sources, I encourage you to check them out.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, it's hard to navigate through rising evidences. You have to hone your skills to stay alert and help provide the best care for your patients. Even if you are not on the front lines, you can help by spreading reliable information rather than doing nothing.
Drug information skills are part of informatics. In my opinion, if you could hone these skills, you could have more job opportunities in almost every aspect of the field. Nowadays, system and data vendors require experienced clinicians to assist in designing and maintaining their products. Health systems and larger pharmacy chains hire pharmacy informatics personnel to assist with training, maintenance of formularies, creation of order sets, and applying updates. Students and pharmacists interested in this field can find out more information from the various associations that focus on informatics, for example Pharmacy Informatics Academy.
At last, I want to share a beautiful graphic from American College of Chest Physicians to help you navigate Covid-19 information.
