TY - JOUR
T1 - Clinical reasoning in pharmacy
T2 - What do eye movements and verbal protocols tell us about the processing of a case task?
AU - Södervik, Ilona
AU - Hanski, Leena
AU - Boshuizen, Henny P.A.
AU - Katajavuori, Nina
N1 - Funding Information:
Open Access funding provided by University of Helsinki including Helsinki University Central Hospital. This work was funded by the University of Helsinki via the project of Cultivating Expertise in Learning of Life Sciences, CELLS (Research Funds of the University of Helsinki, HY/716/05.01.07/2018).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2024/3
Y1 - 2024/3
N2 - This study investigates pharmacy students’ reasoning while solving a case task concerning an acute patient counselling situation in a pharmacy. Participants’ (N = 34) reasoning processes were investigated with written tasks utilizing eye-tracking in combination with verbal protocols. The case was presented in three pages, each page being followed by written questions. Eye movements were recorded during case processing. Success in the task required differentiating the relevant information from the task redundant information, and initial activation of several scripts and verification of the most likely one, when additional information became available. 2nd (n = 16) and 3rd (n = 18)-year students’ and better and worse succeeding students’ processes were compared. The results showed that only a few 2nd-year students solved the case correctly, whereas almost all of the 3rd-year students were successful. Generally, the average total processing times of the case material did not differ between the groups. However, better-succeeding and 3rd-year students processed the very first task-relevant sentences longer, indicating that they were able to focus on relevant information. Differences in the written answers to the 2nd and 3rd question were significant, whereas differences regarding the first question were not. Thus, eye-tracking seems to be able to capture illness script activation during case processing, but other methods are needed to depict the script verification process. Based on the results, pedagogical suggestions for advancing pharmacy education are discussed.
AB - This study investigates pharmacy students’ reasoning while solving a case task concerning an acute patient counselling situation in a pharmacy. Participants’ (N = 34) reasoning processes were investigated with written tasks utilizing eye-tracking in combination with verbal protocols. The case was presented in three pages, each page being followed by written questions. Eye movements were recorded during case processing. Success in the task required differentiating the relevant information from the task redundant information, and initial activation of several scripts and verification of the most likely one, when additional information became available. 2nd (n = 16) and 3rd (n = 18)-year students’ and better and worse succeeding students’ processes were compared. The results showed that only a few 2nd-year students solved the case correctly, whereas almost all of the 3rd-year students were successful. Generally, the average total processing times of the case material did not differ between the groups. However, better-succeeding and 3rd-year students processed the very first task-relevant sentences longer, indicating that they were able to focus on relevant information. Differences in the written answers to the 2nd and 3rd question were significant, whereas differences regarding the first question were not. Thus, eye-tracking seems to be able to capture illness script activation during case processing, but other methods are needed to depict the script verification process. Based on the results, pedagogical suggestions for advancing pharmacy education are discussed.
KW - Case task
KW - Clinical reasoning
KW - Eye-tracking
KW - Pharmacy education
KW - Script activation
KW - Script theory
KW - Script verification
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85160849324&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10459-023-10242-x
DO - 10.1007/s10459-023-10242-x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85160849324
SN - 1382-4996
VL - 29
SP - 45
EP - 65
JO - Advances in Health Sciences Education
JF - Advances in Health Sciences Education
IS - 1
ER -