Documentation:Digital Tattoo Case Studies Project/Pharmacy/Case Study Development

The information here is intended to assist anyone working on future projects similar to the Case Studies for Pharmacy Students created for the Digital Tattoo Project in 2019. The information and tips here were are written by Salma Abumeeiz, the Digital Tattoo Graduate Assistant responsible for research, writing case studies, and creating surveys for the project. We intend for this information to help others conducting similar projects.

The information below should provide an overview of the workflow related to the Case studies Project. We hope that it will help others expand on the existing tasks for future iterations of the project.

(see: case studies page)

Themes

In addition to highlighting the professional obligations of students with regard to digital identity awareness, the Case Studies sought to feature themes that are unique to the health sciences. In doing so, they intend to mirror many of the experiences and considerations of workshop participants as early health science professionals, thereby increasing relatability. The themes addressed in the Cases that are unique to the health sciences are as follows:

Feelings of isolation during work placements (Case #1 and #4)
Inadvertent patient/colleague privacy violations (Case #1,#2 and #3)
Professional obligations to uphold public health (Case #3)
Tensions between personal and professional values (Case #3 and #4)
Implications of online, non-expert medical information (Case #4)

The Cases feature central characters at various stages of their educational and professional careers. In doing so, the Cases illustrate that the considerations present therein exist throughout the careers of healthcare professionals, rather than exclusively during their time as students. The various professional stages represented by each Cases's central character are as follows:

Kai, a third-year pharmacy student embarking on their 8-week practicum (Case #1)
Sara, a second-year pharmacy student working part-time at a local pharmacy (Case #2)
Devon, a graduate of the UBC Doctor of Pharmacy Program working as a pharmacist in an acute care facility after completing the Pharmacy Practice Residency Program (Case #3)
Anita, a recent graduate of the PharmD Program working at a local pharmacy (Case #4)

Learning Outcomes

With reference to Bloom's Taxonomy (ref 1, ref 2), the learning outcomes employ verbs that encourage workshop participants to assess their knowledge, comprehension, and application of digital identity topics, including professional obligations, data ownership, and digital interactions.

The Learning Outcomes are crafted to reflect the themes present in each Case. They provide participants with an opportunity to consider the Case topics prior to, and during, their reading of the actual Cases. In doing so, the Learning Outcomes help facilitate rich discussions by allowing participants to reflect on the project's themes prior to arriving at the Discussion Questions.

Discussion Questions

The Discussion Questions proceed each Case Study. They call on students to consider the events present in each Case from the perspectives of multiple stakeholders. Moreover, they encourage students to consider how these events relate to themselves as emerging pharmacists. The questions are constructed to facilitate rich discussions; they are open-ended, and do not have "correct" answers. In doing so, they highlight the nuisance and ambiguity surrounding digital identity topics, as well as the critical thinking necessary in order to address digital identity issues.

In addition to guiding the discussions surrounding each Case, the Discussion Questions are supplemented with links to additional resources. These resources include news articles, blogs, social media accounts, and open-access scholarly material. These resources can also be found on the Additional Resources page.

Images

Images are used within the Cases to illustrate the narratives present in each. In addition to open-access images, additional images were created to supplement the Cases. These additional resources are in the form of "screenshots" and were created by the research team to make the Cases more engaging and relatable. These supplemental images are as follows:

Chat_.png (Case #1) - This screenshot is a simulation of a conversation within a group chat on Facebook Messenger
Emoji_screenshot.png (Case #2) - This is a screenshot of a simulated Instagram Story
Revised_facebook.png (Case #3) - This is a screenshot of a simulated Facebook Post

Additional Resources

The additional resources provided on the Additional Resources page serve two key functions: foremost, they provide students with real-world examples of the themes present in each Case; additionally, they provide students with an opportunity to mimic the information-seeking habits required to make informed decisions online. As noted in the project's "Learning Outcomes," one of the goals of the project is to encourage participants to "Apply official standards, guidelines, and resources to support decision-making online." Thus, the inclusion of these additional resources provide students with an opportunity to practice consulting related resources to provide decision-making frameworks.

Piloted Discussion

Cases #3 and #4, the Pre and Post Workshop Surveys, and the Resource Page, were piloted with two Digital Tattoo graduate students, as well as a volunteer, 4th-year student pharmacist.

Participants in this piloted discussion expressed that the Cases were highly relatable. They felt that the Cases successfully highlighted the blurred line between one's personal values and those of the profession, and how this ambiguousness relates to the digital identities of pharmacists. Further, they felt that the Discussion Questions accompanying each Case helped highlight the nuance surrounding digital identity issues, as well as the many ways of perceiving/approaching the scenarios presented in each Case.

There was a clear shift in responses between the Pre and Post Surveys prior to and following the discussions of the Cases. In particular, participants had a greater recognition of the complexity and nuance surrounding digital identity topics, and thus felt less certain in their ability to instantly determine "correct" or "right" answers regarding their digital presences.

The Resources Page was deemed helpful, robust, and organized. The student pharmacist noted that students will likely bookmark the page and consult it when considering their digital identities and activities.

Assessment (Pre and Post Workshop Surveys)

During the initial drafts of the Pre and Post Workshop Surveys for the Pharmacy Case Studies, assessment questions were created that were distinct from those used in the Digital Tattoo Teacher Candidate Workshop. However, a question was raised about how the Pre/Post Workshop Surveys for pharmacy students could be used against the Teacher Candidate Assessment tools, and how mirroring the two could create cohesiveness around the Digital Tattoo project as a whole.

The consensus from discussions surrounding these questions was that having some consistency between the two Assessment tools - for Pharmacy and Education - would not only align the goals of the two Workshops, but would also increase the measurability of the learning outcomes of Digital Tattoo. As a result, the questions from Teacher Candidate Assessment Tools were adapted for the context of the Pharmacy workshop.

The two sets of assessment surveys differ in select areas, as listed below:

In the pharmacy Pre Workshop Survey, one question was added - Question 6 - because the research team felt that it captured the ethos of all of the pharmacy cases.
True/False answers were changed to Agree/Disagree; this decision was informed by the Pharmacy Faculty Liaison, who informed the research team that Agree/Disagree answers are more commonly used in medical/scientific literature. The decision was made to change answers to Agree/Disagree because it still captures the binary reflected by True/False answers, but resembles wording that is more familiar to students in the health sciences.
The term "online platforms" was used to replace "online communication technologies" in Question 4 as pharmacists use "online communication technologies" to complete their work.
Questions 8 and 9 were combined into a single question.

The Case Studies and Pre and Post Workshop Surveys were piloted with a small group comprised of two Digital Tattoo Graduate Assistants, as well as a fourth-year student pharmacist.