Development and Implementation of an Advising Program's Meet-and-Greet Session

Making a Case for Faculty Advisor-Advisee Concordant Pairs

The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education Standards require schools and colleges of pharmacy to provide the needed resources for student success, including student advising. The faculty advisor's role in schools and colleges of pharmacy can be varied and may include modeling professional behavior, serving as students' advocate, and providing academic and professional guidance. This is especially important upon students entering pharmacy school when the risk of being overwhelmed has been documented. Various factors, including geographic distance from home, professional identity formation, and anxiety over career trajectory have been challenges to their perceived well-being. As in all human interactions, we believe that successful advisor/mentor-student relationships are more likely to develop if there is a deeper personal connection-some element(s) of shared demographic background-in addition to complementary professional, educational, or research backgrounds of the faculty advisor. Pharmacy students in Chinese and American universities and those in other health care disciplines have rated very highly their perceived value of the supporting role of the faculty advisor; hence, we postulated that using this criterion when matching faculty advisor-student pairs may produce better outcomes. In this commentary, we propose expanded criteria including demographics for producing faculty advisor-advisee concordant (or nearly so) pairs mindfully and strategically in a standardized stepwise process of advising aimed at facilitating success for students of all backgrounds, with the goal of promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion and the ultimate attendant benefits to patient care.

Factors associated with pharmacotherapy course learning achievements in Thai pharmacy students

INTRODUCTION

The doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program is designed for direct patient care experiences. To prepare pharmacy students to have adequate clinical knowledge and skills, pharmacotherapy is a vital course. Due to the difficulties of courses, several students had unsuccessful learning achievements and insufficient clinical skills. The objective was to explore factors associated with pharmacotherapy course learning achievements in pharmacy students.

METHODS

A cross sectional survey was designed and undertaken in 2020. Pharmacy students who enrolled at least one pharmacotherapy course were included. A 39-item questionnaire was developed and distributed electronically. Content validity and reliability tests (Cronbach's α = 0.928) were performed. Descriptive statistics and univariate and logistic regression were used in this study.

RESULTS

The results indicated that four factors were found to be associated with higher grade point average: participation in a study group (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 0.47, 95% CI 0.23-0.97) for Pharmacotherapy I; self-assessed success for Pharmacotherapy II and Advanced Pharmacotherapy (adjusted OR 2.67, 95% CI 1.19-6.01 and adjusted OR 3.45, 95% CI 1.03-11.59, respectively); using social media in the classroom (adjusted OR 12.16, 95% CI 2.03-72.72); and motivation by advisors (adjusted OR 640.74, 95% CI 2.03-201,675.55) for Pharmacotherapy III. Moreover, reviewing material after class (adjusted OR 0.27, 95% CI 0.10-0.71) and using social media in the classroom (adjusted OR 2.03, 95% CI 1.01-4.07) revealed the association with cumulative grade point average.

CONCLUSIONS

There were various factors associated with pharmacotherapy learning achievements. These included factors from learners, instructors, and environment.

Student perception of academic advising in a school of pharmacy

OBJECTIVES

Literature assessing the optimal means of providing academic advisement in pharmacy education is limited. The objective of this study was to describe students' perception of advising within a school of pharmacy.

METHODS

A 27-question survey was developed utilizing Qualtrics and sent to all students at one school of pharmacy. Baseline descriptive data regarding frequency and format of meeting with the assigned advisor were collected, as well as students' opinions of these meetings.

KEY FINDINGS

Of 282 students who were sent the survey, 90 responded (31.9%). The majority of students preferred to meet with their faculty advisor in a group as compared with one-on-one (59 versus 29, 67%). Most students found the advisor/advisee relationship beneficial (n = 77, 85%).

CONCLUSIONS

There was no statistically significant difference in student perception of the quality or value of advisor/advisee meetings between students who met in a group or one-on-one with their advisors.

Engaging faculty advisors to promote students' personal and professional development

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

With the increasing emphasis on personal and professional development in pharmacy curricula, programs often need to enhance or modify existing resources to meet standards. A major initiative of developing a consistent and standardized student advising process involving both clinical and non-clinical faculty as advisors to promote development of pharmacy students was an avenue taken at our institution.

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING

Faculty were identified as ideal individuals to assist in mentoring and assessing students' personal and professional development given the long-term relationships they develop with students throughout both the didactic and experiential curriculum. Development and implementation of a longitudinal faculty advising program incorporating elements of student self-assessment, reflection, and faculty-based objective assessment is described.

FINDINGS

We found both students and faculty benefited from this advising program in different ways, with students feeling more supported and faculty feeling more engaged and informed about the pharmacy curricula and student career-pathways.

SUMMARY

A faculty advising program, as described in this article, can be utilized for both student success and faculty development in the pharmacy education setting.

Evaluation of an Instrument to Assess Students' Personal and Professional Development During the Faculty Advising Process

Objective. To evaluate a tool designed to assess Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students' personal and professional development prior to beginning advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs).Methods. A five-item instrument, entitled the Faculty Advisor's Assessment of the Advisee (FAAA) tool, was developed to assess and monitor pharmacy students' progress over the three-year didactic curriculum. Question anchors were created to describe characteristics exhibited by the student that matched categories of not engaged, beginning, emerging, or engaged. Possible FAAA composite scores ranged from 7 to 20. Using the FAAA tool, faculty advisors assessed their advisees' values, engagement, self-awareness, professionalism, and leadership in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Individual and aggregate cohort reports were run and data for each of the three years were matched with students. To determine if the FAAA showed progression in assessed dimensions in the students during the first, second, and third professional (P1, P2, and P3) years, a Friedman test was performed. Cronbach alpha was used to assess the reliability of the instrument.Results. The data of 93 students were matched for the P1 through the P3 years. Median (IQR) for the FAAA composite score levels for the P1, P2, and P3 were 13 (12-16), 17 (15-19) and 18 (16-20), respectively. Significant differences existed at all timepoints compared, including from the P1 to P2, P2 to P3, and P1 to P3 years. The reliability of the FAAA scale was strong across all three years (winter 2017, α=0.87; winter 2018, α=0.89; and winter 2019, α=0.87). All items appeared worthy of retention as removal did not significantly increase their reliability.Conclusion. A five-item tool which assesses pharmacy students' personal and professional development during the first three years of a PharmD program could be used by faculty advisors to assess student's progress across the didactic curriculum.

Inclusion of Health Disparities, Cultural Competence, and Health Literacy Content in US and Canadian Pharmacy Curriculums

Objective. To determine how US and Canadian pharmacy schools include content related to health disparities and cultural competence and health literacy in curriculum as well as to review assessment practices.Methods. A cross-sectional survey was distributed to 143 accredited and candidate-status pharmacy programs in the United States and 10 in Canada in three phases. Statistical analysis was performed to assess inter-institutional variability and relationships between institutional characteristics and survey results.Results. After stratification by institutional characteristics, no significant differences were found between the 72 (50%) responding institutions in the United States and the eight (80%) in Canada. A core group of faculty typically taught health disparities and cultural competence content and/or health literacy. Health disparities and cultural competence was primarily taught in multiple courses across multiple years in the pre-APPE curriculum. While health literacy was primarily taught in multiple courses in one year in the pre-APPE curriculum in Canada (75.0%), delivery of health literacy was more varied in the United States, including in a single course (20.0%), multiple courses in one year (17.1%), and multiple courses in multiple years (48.6%). Health disparities and cultural competence and health literacy was mostly taught at the introduction or reinforcement level. Active-learning approaches were mostly used in the United States, whereas in Canada active learning was more frequently used in teaching health literacy (62.5%) than health disparities and cultural competence (37.5%). Few institutions reported providing professional preceptor development.Conclusion. The majority of responding pharmacy schools in the United States and Canada include content on health disparities and cultural competence content and health literacy to varying degrees; however, less is required and implemented within experiential programs and the co-curriculum. Opportunities remain to expand and apply information on health disparities and cultural competence content and health literacy content, particularly outside the didactic curriculum, as well as to identify barriers for integration.

Implementation and evaluation of an advisement program focused on academic and career development

INTRODUCTION

This research evaluated a formal academic and career advisement program implemented in a doctor of pharmacy program, which included a "Meet Your Advisor" luncheon and required faculty advisement sessions with an assigned faculty member.

METHODS

The advising experience of students from two cohorts of first-year pharmacy students who received the formal advisement program (referred to as advisement cohort 1 and advisement cohort 2) were compared to the experience of a cohort of second-year students who entered prior to the formal advisement program (referred to as the pre-advisement cohort). All students completed a survey with both quantitative and qualitative questions regarding the advisement program.

RESULTS

Our research demonstrates that the formal advisement program was successful at ensuring that nearly all students receive personalized advisement. In the pre-advisement cohort 65% of students reported receiving individual advisement, while 94% of students in advisement cohort 1 reported individual advisement and 95% in advisement cohort 2. Advisement cohort 2 responded similarly to the pre-advisement cohort on many of the advisement scales, especially the developing understanding scales, which provided evidence that two years after making the advisement program mandatory, students were having similar experiences to the smaller group of students who self-selected to receive advisement.

CONCLUSIONS

A formal advisement program can be developed to include all students. Our research provides evidence that it may take time for the changes to be impactful and suggests the importance of faculty development.