Use of high-fidelity simulation to teach end-of-life care to pharmacy students in an interdisciplinary course

Objective. To assess the effect of high-fidelity simulation on pharmacy students’ attitudes and perceived competencies in providing end-of-life care in an interdisciplinary palliative care course.Design. Thirty pharmacy students participated in a high-fidelity simulation of the 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after the death of a patient with end-stage renal disease.Assessment. Students completed the Attitudes Toward Death Survey and the End of Life Competency Survey prior to and after experiencing the simulation. A reflections journal exercise was used to capture post-simulation subjective reactions, and a course evaluation was used to assess students’ satisfaction with the simulation experience. Students’ post-simulation attitudes toward death significantly improved compared to pre-simulation attitudes and they felt significantly more competent to take care of dying patients. Students were satisfied with this teaching method.Conclusion. High-fidelity simulation is an innovative way to challenge pharmacy students’ attitudes and help them with knowledge acquisition about end-of-life care.