Abstract
It is important for pharmacy students to understand the structure of dispensing fees in the health insurance system if they are to participate actively in on-the-job training in a community pharmacy.While the major task of community pharmacists is to contribute to patients through dispensing medicines and providing information on prescription drugs,their professional skills are evaluated under the dispensing fee system.We introduced a program to help students understand the calculation of dispensing fees as part of their training in community pharmacy practice at our pharmacy school and in the present study,evaluated the program by measuring the level of satisfaction of students who participated in the program and noting changes in their examination scores afterwards.
Questionnaires and paper tests were given to students before and after training.The results showed that 97.7% of students were satisfied with the training program,and their scores improved from 0.87 to 4.34 (5=full marks).Based on multiple linear regression analysis,four factors-acquisition of new knowledge,training procedure,willingness to learn more,and level of interest before training-influenced the level of satisfaction.Though some students expressed negative opinions concerning the volume of material to learn and the duration of the program,analysis showed that these factors did not significantly influence the level of satisfaction.We considered that the reason for such opinions could be the use of drills in teaching and thus the program should be improved by introducing more adult-oriented techniques.
