Solving Stigma Through POV Simulation: Enhancing Pharmacist Empathy-based Practices With Sickle Cell Disease Patients

"In POV simulations, participants actively engage with a patient looking to fill an opioid script at a community pharmacy setting through the point of view of the pharmacist. Using a choose your own adventure branch chain format, our research team has already drafted interaction pathways where participants can respond to the patient with empathy-based practice, act on a common misconception around chronic opioid use, or mislabel the patient as drug seeking. After 3-4 interaction branches, the participants reach a decision to fill the opioid script, deny it, or some variation of delaying the script being filled. The POV simulation then replays the participant's choices back to them from the patient's point of view, revealing that the SCD patient was in genuine pain and engaging participant's empathy as they rewatch their microaggressive and mislabeled drug seeker choices through the patient's POV."

Participants will watch a hematology educational video unrelated to pain management