Communities and Schools Promoting Health

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Webquest on Sexual Health:
 Pharmacies and Sex

Prepared By: Mary Shannon & Doug McCall  
Sponsored By: www.sexualityandu.ca

 See the Teacher's Guide to this Webquest


 

Number of People for this WQ

  • At least two students are needed for this webquest.

Outcomes for this WQ:

  • know more about pharmacies

  • anticipate barriers to health services from pharmacies

  • develop a plan to use pharmacies

Materials for this WQ

  • School or parent permission may be required to conduct the interview in this webquest.

Documents for This WQ

Student Tools for this WQ

Preparing and Conducting Interviews (Section 3.5 of your Personal Health Journal)

Evaluation Criteria for Writing to Persuade

Evaluation Criteria/Procedure

 

Participation  

 


 

Introduction

Pharmacies and pharmacists can help young people to maintain their health, including their sexual health. Find out how and if your local pharmacy is doing what it can.

Task 

In this medium-term webquest, students will read about how pharmacies can play an important role in adolescent sexual health promotion. Then students will apply this knowledge in doing an assessment and interview with pharmacy staff in their community.

Process and Steps

  1. Start this webquest with a visit to a virtual pharmacy at Cyberisle, a youth site with much information on health. Click on all the objects in the picture to see what type of general health and sexual health information is available in a pharmacy.

    Prepare a list of health topics that are seen in the virtual pharmacy. There are three topics related to adolescent development and sexual health that are not show in the virtual pharmacy. What are they? (Click here to see a more complete list of health topics on which pharmacies can provide more information.

    Click on each of the objects in the virtual pharmacy and use Section 31. of your Personal Health Journal to describe your reactions to the web sites that are linked with the objects in the pharmacy. (Each student in your group should visit each site, then compare your notes. Students will be required to hand in their own notes. 

  2. Read the following web pages to learn or review the basic facts about hormones and other changes that occur during puberty.


    3. Next read these two articles on how pharmacists can assist youth in dealing with acne, personal grooming products or other health concerns that relate to sexual health.

    The first article, Acne Management in Community Practice reviews the results of three studies describing how pharmacists were not truly helpful or informative with their adolescent customers. The second article, Soft-selling to Teenagers is more commercial in its approach but has suggestions on how to treat adolescent consumers.

    Based on these two articles, the previous fact sheets on hormones and other questions related to puberty, and your own experience in shopping in drug stores and pharmacies, develop a list of practical suggestions for pharmacies on how to make information and service more youth-friendly when offering puberty-related health services.

    To finish this section on the topics of acne, menstruation and hormones, read this statement from doctors and pharmacists' associations about Diane®-35. This birth control product is often prescribed to young women suffering from acne. A recent media report caused public concern about this product which is addressed in this joint statement.

  3. Next, read the basic facts about different contraception methods on the following web pages:


    Pharmacies sell condoms but it is not always easy for a young person to buy them. There are social barriers to overcome. Read this report on a study done in Nova Scotia on Young Women's Experiences in Obtaining Sexual Health Services.

    Read the article and identify the key messages provided by participants for overcoming barriers in obtaining condoms in pharmacies. List the recommendations, add your own ideas and then combine the suggestions with your earlier list of suggestions in Step 2.

  1. Emergency contraception services are increasingly available in Canadian pharmacies but there are also barriers that prevent adolescents from gaining easy access to these services.

    First, read the basic facts on Emergency Contraception.

    Next, read the following articles and documents and answer the assigned questions about Emergency Contraception in Pharmacies.


    Students working together on this webquest should answer the assigned questions together and submit a final copy to your teacher.

    Return to your list of suggestions for pharmacists that you developed in Step 2 and Step 3. Add suggestions about emergency contraception services and information that should be available in pharmacies to your list.
     

  2. Based on the previous work in this webquest, you will adapt a draft interview questionnaire for pharmacists for use in an interview with a local pharmacist in your community.

    Print the Draft Interview Questionnaire for Pharmacists and review the questions. Be sure that the list of suggestions that you developed in Step 2, 3 and 4 are covered. If they are not, add more questions or change the questions in the draft so that your ideas are covered.

    Submit your revised interview questions to your teacher prior to approaching a local pharmacy to ask for an interview. On a separate page, include an explanation as to why you have changed, added or deleted question(s) to the interview questionnaire

    Locate a suitable pharmacy/drug store in your community.

    Use the procedures suggested in  Section 3.5 of your Personal Health Journal to prepare for your interview. Consult with your teacher on how to request an interview with the local pharmacist.

    Conduct an interview. (NOTE: There are several questions about the pharmacy that you can answer yourself simply by observing the layout of the pharmacy.)

    Prepare a two-page report on your interview using the information gained through the interview. In your report, discuss how well prepared the pharmacy is to respond to youth sexual health questions.

How Your Work will be Evaluated

All students working on this webquest will be evaluated on their individual reports, on the web sites they have visited and by going through the Virtual Pharmacy in Step One of this webquest.

Students working together will be evaluated together on the basis of their list of suggestions for pharmacies developed in Step 2, 3 and 4 of this webquest.

As well, students will be evaluated as a group for their revisions to the Draft Interview Questionnaire (including their explanation of why they revised the questions.)

Finally, all students doing this webquest will be evaluated as a group on the basis of their report on their interview. Ask your teacher how these Evaluation Criteria for Health Interviews will be applied to this webquest.

Conclusions and Extensions

As an extension of this webquest, students could adapt the interview questions into a survey of several local pharmacies. The results of this survey could be compiled into a report. This report could be circulated to participating pharmacies (ensure that all results are anonymously reported.)

As well, students, could do a similar webquest on Youth-Friendly Doctors and Clinics.