The Impact of Pharmacy Mobile Application on Student Performance on NAPLEX-Based Questionnaire

Abstract

Objectives: To determine if the use of RxSkills effectively improves student scores on the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX)-based questions among third and fourth-year pharmacy students at the University of Arizona (UA) College of Pharmacy. Methods: This is a pre-post interventional study using a survey of volunteer students from the classes of 2016 and 2017 at the UA College of Pharmacy. An email calling for volunteers was sent using the listserv to students providing information regarding the study. Once the pre-test was completed, instructions for downloading the mobile application were sent to the students. After six weeks of RxSkills use, a link to the post-test was sent to the students for completion. Student scores on the NAPLEX-based questions, use of the application (frequency and duration) and helpfulness, and demographic data were collected. Results: The number of participants in the study from each class was similar with 15 students from the Class of 2016 (52%) and 14 from the Class of 2017 (48%). There was no correlation between how often RxSkills was used and improvement in scores. Overall, student score on the NAPLEX-based questions were significantly improved post-RxSkills use (mean 10.48, SD 2.49) compared to pre-RxSkills use (mean 9.68, SD 2.24) with a p-value of 0.03. Conclusions: The use of RxSkills resulted in an improvement in student scores on the NAPLEX-based questions, indicating its usefulness in studying for the NAPLEX. Students would benefit from using the application when studying for this exam.