Pharmacy Students Improving Communication Skills Through Blogging

Newswise — In recent years, blogs have become popular tools to distribute information quickly across the Internet. Journalists use them to update stories, political groups use them to communicate with supporters, and everyday people use them to share thoughts and activities with friends.

Now, a University of Mississippi professor is using blogs as a tool to teach pharmacy students to communicate more effectively. Alicia S. Bouldin, associate professor of pharmacy administration, has incorporated blogging into her pharmacy communications class.

A blog, short for Web log, is sort of an online journal, a Web page on which users produce a narrative that is updated regularly. In Bouldin’s class, students comment on their real-world communication experiences. The objective is for students to identify communication observations, self-assess communication performance and apply course concepts outside the classroom.

“Maintaining a Web log or course journal actually offers opportunities to foster several of the abilities that are educational outcomes for PHAD 490: communication skills, social skills, self- and social awareness, critical thinking, self-learning, empathy, sensitivity to cultural differences and probably even more,” Bouldin said. “Thinking about communication issues and situations outside the classroom will certainly improve one’s communication skills and may even influence one’s attitude toward certain aspects of communication by enhancing understanding of the implications of communication in practice.”

Bouldin chose blogging as an instructional tool because of its advantages over hard copy papers.

“Using blogs takes advantage of this current interest in using technology as a major means of communication,” she said. “Plus, for the instructor, blogs have added benefits not possible with paper assignments, such as passworded accounts to assure independent authoring, and automatic date and time stamps on blog entries to help me see that they were done consistently across time and not all the night before a set was due.”

During the semester, students are assigned to submit two entries each week. Most blog entries can be on communication-related topics chosen by the individual, but “bloggable ideas” are provided to help prompt them. Ideas included identifying communication barriers in a situation, how the practice environment affects pharmacist and patient communication, observations from daily interactions with classmates or roommates and how silence is interpreted as a nonverbal message.

Students creatively identified communication scenarios in television shows, song lyrics and comic strips, applying them to relevant course content. In some cases, students were assigned a specific topic for a week’s entries, such as responses to sample job interview questions or reflection on a guest speaker's comments.
By identifying and reflecting on communication situations in various aspects of their experience, students deepen their knowledge of concepts that may be applied to a pharmacy-care setting.

“Blogs allow us to assess a level of understanding of material that is difficult to assess with exams,” teaching assistant Erin Homes said. “Students have to explain their answers in words and it demonstrates to us that they have a better grasp of the information.”

The students find they enjoy and learn from the experience as well.
“Not only was it (blogging) effective in learning class material, but it was a chance to truly process the information and apply it in the blogging exercise,” said Mary Claire Crowson, a fourth-year pharmacy student from Oxford, Miss. “I actually miss blogging this semester because I did not realize how, at the same time I was learning communication skills, I was also relieving stress by writing."

Students often do not get writing practice in pharmacy school, and blogging offers a way to practice writing skills in a nonscientific manner, Crowson said
"I believe the ability to communicate in a nonscientific way is critical to improving a pharmacist’s interpersonal communication skills, and these skills are of utmost importance in pharmacist-patient relationships,” she said.
For more information on the School of Pharmacy, go to http://www.pharmacy.olemiss.edu/.