BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Smoking cessation campaigns aim to raise awareness on the dangers of tobacco use and provide help for successful abstinence. Fourth year students of the UP College of Pharmacy implemented activities to promote smoking cessation among patients and clients at a tertiary government hospital. This paper aimed to describe the students' experiences on their project at the hospital during their Hospital Pharmacy course. Key learnings, challenges, and recommendations for the project's improvement, as well as their perceptions on current smoking cessation programs of the government were, likewise, determined.

METHODS: The students' activities were documented and described. A descriptive quantitative design using a self-administered online questionnaire was used to determine challenges, key learnings, and recommendations while content analysis was applied on open-ended questions to determine the frequency of responses in common themes identified. Perceptions on current smoking cessation campaigns were also summarized using frequency statistics.

RESULTS: The five approved projects implemented by the students were (1) setting up of smoking cessation booths, (2) display of posters within the hospital premises, (3) distribution of leaflets and reading materials, (4) playing of smoking cessation campaign videos, and (5) the creation of a social media page. Most of the students were challenged in scheduling and delegation of tasks (81.4%) and delays in project implementation (57.6%). They also realized the difficulty of stopping smoking (74.6%) and that it has various root causes (72.9%) that need to be addressed. To improve the project, students recommended collaborations with the hospital (79.7%) and the Department of Health (84.7%) to further smoking cessation programs. Lastly, they perceived that the current smoking cessation program is inadequate or underutilized.

CONCLUSION: Smoking cessation programs require a multi-sectoral approach to be effective and sustainable, and students can be active partners in their implementation. Pharmacy student smoking cessation-led activities can complement government programs on smoking cessation. Moreover, students can apply what they have learned about smoking cessation while preparing them for their future role as pharmacist-counsellors.

PURPOSE: It aimed at testing the validity and reliability of a validated team-based learning student assessment instrument (TBL-SAI) to assess United Kingdom pharmacy students' attitude toward TBL. METHODS: TBL-SAI, consisting of 33 items, was administered to undergraduate pharmacy students from two schools of pharmacy each at University of Wolverhampton and University of Bradford were conducted on the data, along with comparison between the two schools. RESULTS: Students' response rate was 80.0% (138/173) in completion of the instrument. Overall, the instrument demonstrated validity and reliability when used with pharmacy students. Sub-analysis between schools of pharmacy did, however, show that four items from Wolverhampton data, had factor loadings of less than 0.40. No item in the Bradford data had factor loadings less than 0.40. Cronbach's alpha score was reliable at 0.897 for the total instrument: Wolverhampton, 0.793 and Bradford, 0.902. Students showed preference to TBL, with Bradford's scores being statistically higher (P<0.005). CONCLUSION: This validated instrument has demonstrated reliability and validity when used with pharmacy students. Furthermore students at both schools preferred TBL compared to traditional teaching.
Great Britain* ; Humans ; Learning* ; Pharmacies ; Pharmacy* ; Reproducibility of Results ; Students, Pharmacy

Experiential education is a core curriculum of pharmacy education. In experiential education, formative feedback is an integral component of learning and teaching process. Feedback is defined as information provided by a preceptor regarding student's performance based on direct observation. With effective feedback, students can have opportunities to reinforce or correct behaviors and to acquire knowledge or skills. Students highly value and appreciate feedback. They rank provision of effective feedback as one of the most important qualities of preceptors. Preceptors, however, lack an understanding of feedback or practical skills necessary for providing effective feedback. As a result in reality, the feedback provided to students can be differentially effective in improving students' learning. This article describes a theoretical understanding of feedback including definition and value, as well as types of feedback. In addition, practical aspects in providing feedback, such as contents, timing, techniques, and models, are addressed. By understanding the value of feedback and mastering various feedback skills, preceptors will promote students' learning and enhance educational outcomes of experiential education.
Curriculum ; Education* ; Education, Pharmacy ; Formative Feedback ; Humans ; Learning ; Pharmacy* ; Students, Pharmacy

Experiential education is a core curriculum of 6-year pharmacy education. Practicing pharmacists lie at the heart of experiential education serving as preceptors for undergraduate pharmacy students during experiential education. Preceptors are, however, confronted with a challenge of caring for patients and teaching students at the same time in a time-constrained environment. To improve the effectiveness and outcomes of experiential education, practicing pharmacists are required to demonstrate educational competence. Even small teaching moments can provide students with valuable learning opportunities that they could not have from on their own. Thus, it is vital to provide education and training for preceptors to advance their teaching skills. This article will describe practical and effective teaching skills that preceptors could adopt in the experiential education for pharmacy students. It is important that preceptors should use different teaching skills for different learners, according to their level of experience and knowledge, learning styles and needs, as well as the type of the practice. Therefore, possessing diverse teaching skills provides flexibility to adapt teaching to each student's learning levels and needs, and to the charateristics of the practice environment. Preceptors' level of confidence and comfort in using teaching skills can be enhanced through continuous practice and training, which consequently leads to the improved effectiveness of experiential education and student's satisfaction with the education.
Curriculum ; Education* ; Education, Pharmacy ; Heart ; Humans ; Learning ; Mental Competency ; Pharmacists ; Pharmacy* ; Pliability ; Students, Pharmacy

OBJECTIVE: This study was to investigate the perception gap between preceptors and pharmacy students on community pharmacy experiential education. METHODS: The online survey was performed for 55 preceptors and 215 pharmacy students separately from April 1 to April 30, 2014. The preceptors were who completed community pharmacy practice experience at least a session and the students were who involved in community pharmacy practice for more than 21 days. The questionnaires were prepared based on the lesson contents guideline of Introductory Pharmacy Practice Education of Community Pharmacy by Korea Association of Pharmacy Education. The survey questions were consisted with demographic characteristics, evaluation of student and preceptors, benefits and disadvantages of pharmacy practice for both groups. RESULTS: A total of 27 (49.1%) preceptors and 103 (47.9%) pharmacy students responded to the survey questionnaires. Preceptors indicated that students lacked face-to-face communication ability with patients, caregivers, and physicians. One of the Benefits of participating in pharmacy practice education as a preceptor included the improvement of self-esteem (70.37%). Disadvantages were identified as workload burden due to teaching and preceptor responsibilities at the same time. All students responded that benefits of experiencing pharmacy practice education were helping them determine their career, and they would consider working in community pharmacies (68.93%). However, handling over-the-counter drugs and communicating with doctors or nurses were identified as barriers. In addition, preceptors and pharmacy students expressed necessity of the standard text books and curriculums. CONCLUSION: This study identified the perception gap on community pharmacy experiential education between preceptors and pharmacy students. For the successful implementation of pharmacy practice experience, the effective and appropriate methods should be developed.
Caregivers ; Communication ; Curriculum ; Education* ; Education, Pharmacy ; Humans ; Korea ; Nonprescription Drugs ; Pharmacies* ; Pharmacy* ; Students, Pharmacy*

This study aimed to identify those features within secondary school curricula and assessment, particularly science subjects that best predict academic achievement in the first year of three different three-year undergraduate health professional programmes (nursing, pharmacy, and health sciences) at a large New Zealand university. In particular, this study compared the contribution of breadth of knowledge (number of credits acquired) versus grade level (grade point average) and explored the impact of demographic variables on achievement. The findings indicated that grades are the most important factor predicting student success in the first year of university. Although taking biology and physics at secondary school has some impact on university first year achievement, the effect is relatively minor.
Achievement ; Biology ; College Admission Test ; Curriculum ; Educational Measurement ; Health Occupations ; Humans ; New Zealand ; Pharmacy ; Students, Nursing ; Students, Pharmacy ; Students, Premedical

BACKGROUND: Pharmacy schools newly adopted a 6-year program strengthening clinical knowledge since 2011 in Korea. The clinical training under the guidance of preceptors at hospital sites is a requisite for pharmacy students during the last year of undergraduate course. It has been rarely studied on the hospital pharmacists' perspective regarding being a preceptor or teaching pharmacy students. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the hospital pharmacists' intention toward student training and to identify the relevant factors among the individual pharmacists' characteristics and working environment within the theoretical frame of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). METHOD: A mail-survey was conducted for pharmacists working in tertiary hospitals in Seoul and Incheon. The survey questionnaire consisting of 131 questions with a 5-likert scale was developed for investigating pharmacists' attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and the intention to teach pharmacy students as well as other demographic variables. To estimate the construct validity of components, factor analysis was conducted and Cronbach's alpha was calculated to estimate the reliability of the observed variables. Statistical analyses of one-way variance analysis and multiple regression analysis were performed using SPSS 18.0. RESULTS: The survey response rate was 53% (116/210) and the three constructs of attitude (r = .519), subjective norm (r = .233) and perceived control (r = .392) have appropriate correlations with the intention, proving the appropriateness of using the TPB model. Pharmacists working in inpatient (mean = 3.45) and outpatient clinics (mean = 3.34) generally showed positive intention for teaching. The attitude (beta = .432, p < 0.01) and perceived control (beta = .270, p < .01) constructs were significant predictors of the intention. Both age (r = 0.246, p = 0.017) and length of career (r = 0.310, p = 0.002) were positively related with the perceived control. CONCLUSION: Hospital pharmacists showed generally positive intention to provide student training in spite of the concern on their limited perceived behavioral control. Future research to find the actual barriers pharmacists faced in educating students need to be conducted.
Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Education, Pharmacy ; Humans ; Incheon ; Inpatients ; Intention* ; Korea ; Pharmacists* ; Schools, Pharmacy ; Seoul ; Students, Pharmacy ; Tertiary Care Centers

PURPOSE: To establish a model of Japanese pharmacy students' learning motivation profile and investigate the effects of pharmaceutical practical training programs on their learning motivation. METHODS: The Science Motivation Questionnaire II was administered to pharmacy students in their 4th (before practical training), 5th (before practical training at clinical sites), and 6th (after all practical training) years of study at Josai International University in April, 2016. Factor analysis and multiple-group structural equation modeling were conducted for data analysis. RESULTS: A total of 165 students participated. The learning motivation profile was modeled with 4 factors (intrinsic, career, self-determination, and grade motivation), and the most effective learning motivation was grade motivation. In the multiple-group analysis, the fit of the model with the data was acceptable, and the estimated mean value of the factor of ‘self-determination’ in the learning motivation profile increased after the practical training programs (P=0.048, Cohen's d=0.43). CONCLUSION: Practical training programs in a 6-year course were effective for increasing learning motivation, based on ‘self-determination’ among Japanese pharmacy students. The results suggest that practical training programs are meaningful not only for providing clinical experience but also for raising learning motivation.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Education ; Humans ; Learning* ; Motivation* ; Pharmacy* ; Statistics as Topic ; Students, Pharmacy*

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to assess the current status of experiential education, by analyzing pharmacy students' satisfaction and evaluation for practice sites and preceptors for 3 years from 2014 through 2016. METHODS: Students evaluated the practice sites and preceptors using a 5-point and a 4-point Likert scale, respectively. Analysis was performed based on the types of curriculums and practice sites. In addition, sub-analysis was conducted based on the types of health-system pharmacy and the community pharmacy. RESULTS: Total 203 students responded to the survey questionnaires. The 3-year average score of students' satisfaction with practice sites was 4.25. In the sub-analysis conducted based on the types of health-system pharmacy, the score was higher in the tertiary hospital pharmacies than that of the general hospital pharmacies (4.49 vs. 4.06, P<0.001). For community pharmacy, the difference in the score of the 3-year analysis was not significant, depending on the types (4.51 vs. 4.33, P=0.054). The average score of students' evaluation on the preceptors was 3.37 in the 3-year analysis. The score was significantly higher for the preceptors of tertiary hospital pharmacies than those of general hospital pharmacies (3.61 vs. 3.25, P<0.001). For community pharmacy, no significant differences were found, depending on the types of pharmacy (3.53 vs. 3.43, P=0.309). CONCLUSION: The students' satisfaction with practice sites and preceptors in pharmacy experiential education was high. However, it varied greatly depending on the types of educational institutions. Mutual effort between university and educational institutions is required, to narrow the gap in the degree of students' satisfaction.
Curriculum ; Education* ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Pharmacies ; Pharmacy* ; Students, Pharmacy ; Tertiary Care Centers

It aimed to compare the study skills of two groups of undergraduate pharmacy students in the School of Medicine, University of Zambia using the Study Skills Assessment Questionnaire (SSAQ), with the goal of analysing students' study skills and identifying factors that affect study skills. A questionnaire was distributed to 67 participants from both programs using stratified random sampling. Completed questionnaires were rated according to participants study skill. The total scores and scores within subscales were analysed and compared quantitatively. Questionnaires were distributed to 37 students in the regular program, and to 30 students in the parallel program. The response rate was 100%. Students had moderate to good study skills: 22 respondents (32.8%) showed good study skills, while 45 respondents (67.2%) were found to have moderate study skills. Students in the parallel program demonstrated significantly better study skills (mean SSAQ score, 185.4+/-14.5), particularly in time management and writing, than the students in the regular program (mean SSAQ score 175+/-25.4; P<0.05). No significant differences were found according to age, gender, residential or marital status, or level of study. The students in the parallel program had better time management and writing skills, probably due to their prior work experience. The more intensive training to students in regular program is needed in improving time management and writing skills.
Surveys and Questionnaires ; Humans ; Marital Status ; Motivation ; Pharmacy* ; Students, Pharmacy* ; Test Taking Skills* ; Time Management ; Writing ; Zambia*