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UCC MPharm Student Publishes Study on Student Experiences with MyDispense
The School of Pharmacy, UCC is delighted to congratulate MPharm student Owen Collins, Mrs Ruth McCarthy and Professor Laura Sahm on their recent publication in the peer-reviewed journal MDPI Pharmacy, titled “Barriers and Facilitators of Using MyDispense From The Student Perspective : A Systematic Review”.
MyDispense, developed by Monash University in Australia, is an innovative online pharmacy simulation platform that enables students to practice and develop their dispensing and clinical reasoning skills in a safe, realistic, virtual environment without the risk of patient harm. Widely used in pharmacy education across more than 200 third-level institutions worldwide, MyDispense helps to bridge the gap for students between classroom teaching and real-world pharmacy practice.
This publication explored students’ experiences and perceptions of MyDispense, identifying key facilitators to its use such as competence development, accessibility, flexibility, and increased confidence in dispensing prescriptions. It also highlighted several barriers to its use, including the initial learning curve of the platform for faculty and students, technical challenges and limitations in its design aspects.
Owen’s research was completed as part of his BPharm project and was supervised by Professor Laura Sahm, Vice-Dean of the UCC School of Pharmacy, and Mrs Ruth McCarthy, Practice Education Co-Ordinator. We are delighted to see this work published and hope this research will help guide and contribute to further innovation in teaching and learning in pharmacy education - particularly as MyDispense is currently being used by first and second year students in our school!