128 Getting Healthcare Students to be More Empathatic for Geriatric Patients: The Impact of Simulation Suit on Pharmacy Students

Abstract

Introduction: The world's population worldwide is greying, and it is important that health care professionals such as pharmacists are able to gain proficiency in working with older adults who may be suffering from both physical and mental illnesses. One of the challenges for many schools that offer healthcare related courses is the need to support continued empathy towards this ageing population so that they can offer better healthcare services. Recently, ageing suits which are an immersive simulation suit designed to simulate the effects of ageing have been introduced to enable nursing students to experience what older adults face in health care situation. Method: In this randomised controlled study, all year 1 students enrolled in the Bachelor of Pharmacy course (n=120) at our institution were assigned to either a polypharmacy only workshop or use an ageing suit together with polypharmacy workshop (intervention).The intervention group was tasked to perform a series of exercises, including walking a flight of stairs, picking up a coin as well as filling up a form. All participants completed the Jefferson Empathy Scale and semi‐structured questionnaire. Results: At the end of exercise, intervention group participants had a marginal improvement in their self‐reported empathy levels, with an improvement of 1.7 +14.5 points compared to 1.2+9.4 points in control (p=0.81). Participants in the intervention reported changes in physical performance consistent with the expected changes associated with ageing. They also reported a change in attitude and were able to empathize better with older adults especially on issues related to patient communication. Conclusion: As such, future research should also include and involve a wider range of students to ensure that they become health advocates for the health care needs of older adults. This will enable them to deliver better healthcare services to meet the needs of the older adults.