This is the first of three sessions where the instructor works with pharmacy students to help then understand how to conduct literature searching and research from an inclusive perspective. The students have already seen the instructor once so emphasis is placed on understanding their current search knowledge, addressing the needs of the group, and then on them exploring how to research topics of patient care with a myriad of voices (not just relying on scholarly works). This is done with many activities and group work.

The sixth in a series of 6 courses, students focus on the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Plan involving prescription medications, patient history, and more complex patient cases. The librarian has already met with these students in other courses so this is and scaffolded approach with this being their last session with the librarian. The purpose of the librarian session is to make sure they feel comfortable doing advanced research on drug information pertaining to specific topics that will be communicated to patients.

This lesson was given to a health career academy that consists of high school and undergraduate students. The students have a strong interest in careers in the health sciences but have yet to start their education through health sciences programs. The point of the session was to understand how disparities and health literacy intersect and will be important factors in the work they do as learners and providers and to empower the students to use their cultural wealth and voices to make change. I am attaching the slides with notes (which acted as my lesson plan for this session).

(Thanks to Amanda Meeks at Northern Arizona University for sharing her insight into her development of an avatar-based method for promoting empathy in classrooms and for allowing their use in other learning spaces, including clinical settings.)