Shifting pharmacy training from hospitals to clinics during COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, panic and public scare spread among individuals including healthcare providers, and a need to design an alternative clinical training away from hospitals where there were many COVID-19 infections became a top priority. This study aimed to implement special clinical training for pharmacy students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical training was conducted in the University of Petra (UOP) campus clinic instead of hospitals. Campus training was from July to September 2020. The in-campus clinical training at the UOP clinic involved primary patient care concentrating on pharmaceutical care, which focuses on correct drug indication, effectiveness, safety, and adherence. A total of 15 final years pharmacy students from the faculty of pharmacy finished the post-training questionnaire.  Qualitative responses from students exhibited positive answers linked to campus clinical training orientation, preceptors, and pharmacy students’ clinical knowledge and clinical skills.   Students expressed positive and high appraisals of clinical training locations and medical staff/preceptors.   Keywords: Clinic; Coronavirus; COVID-19; education; pharmacy; training.