Reflective Case Discussion

The “reflective case discussion” provides an opportunity reflect on actions and decisions made in providing care, including the role of the pharmacist in the consultation, collection of integration of relevant patient and therapeutic information, clinical decision-making and communication. This also provides an opportunity for identifying learning needs and presents an opportunity for colleagues/mentors to provide feedback and insight on actions taken for a patient case in practice.

Case Discussion Format

1)Choose a patient case from the clinical practice.

2)Describe the case [e.g. patient demographics, chief complaint, medical and medication history), the reason for referral, what initial action you decided to take and context (other relevant variables influencing the case or your actions)].

3)Describe your steps taken during the patient care process [e.g. patient interview, collection of information, identification of drug-related problem(s), assessment, therapeutic plan, recommendations, how the plan was implemented] and why you took that approach.

Use the following questions to reflect on your actions:

IMPACT project 2006

□ What information did you think was most

essential to collect in this case? What

sources did you identify and access? What

assumptions and inferences did you make in

the data collection process?

□ What was your approach during the

patient interview? How effective do you feel

this approach was for collecting information

and establishing a relationship with the

patient? Where there verbal or nonverbal

indicators that you noticed from the patient

that indicated an area of improvement?

□ What were the main issues/DRPs

identified in the case and why? What was

the patient’s perspective? What do you think

is the physician’s perspective?

□ What were the therapeutic alternatives that you considered for the issue/DRP?

□ Which alternative(s) did you select that was the most appropriate and why did you think so? What patient factors and evidence did you need to consider when making your decision?

□ How did you implement your

recommendations? How were the

recommendations received by the patient

and physician?

□ What is your plan for monitoring and follow up? What potential problems could occur and how can these be handled?

□ What were the critical incidents during the

case? How did you respond? Why did you

respond in that way?

□ What was the most difficult or surprising issue related to this scenario? Why was this difficult? How did you respond?

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ACTION PLAN

What clinical pearls did you learn from this patient scenario?
What actions would you change in your next patient encounter?
What learning needs did you identify?
What are potential resources for the learning needs?

IMPACT project 2006