Perception of Jordanian pharmacy students towards community pharmacy-virtual training experience during COVID-19 outbreak

Background: This study aims to assess the perception of pharmacy students towards this new modality of training during CoViD-19 period. Methods: Senior pharmacy students were included in this study. Accredited and certified community pharmacy preceptors were asked to simulate the community pharmacy training and record that as videos, which were evaluated and assessed by expert academics before being delivered to students. A validated online questionnaire was then distributed for self-administration electronically to evaluate their perception. Results: A convenience sample (n=109) of senior pharmacy students were recruited. The majority of the participants were females (70.6%) and the median age of students was 22.0 years (IQR= 1). Around half of the participants showed positive perceptions towards the virtual training module and the pharmacy training preceptors. A 46.8% of the students benefited from the virtual training in time management, and 43.1% in developing lifelong learning skills. The absence of eye contact during the learning was the most important barrier revealed by the students (52.3%). Half of the students agreed/strongly agreed that combining the virtual and conventional techniques for future training would improve training outcomes. Conclusion: While students had an overall positive experience, there were many hurdles that need to be addressed, such as lack of communication and technical support. This spot the light on the crucial need to continually improve and redesign our experiential education; to achieve optimum learning outcomes for students.