Search Results (75)

Background: Self-medication is the use of medicinal products to treat self-diagnosed disorders or symptoms without the prescription or supervision of a healthcare professional. There is a lack of data about self-medication knowledge, attitudes, and practices among pharmacy undergraduates in Malaysia. This study assessed the knowledge, attitudes, and practices among undergraduate pharmacy students in Penang regarding self-medication. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered, web-based survey (Google Forms), which was completed and responded to by 203 undergraduate pharmacy students from Penang, Malaysia, between October and December 2023. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants. Associations between the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants and the knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding self-medication were assessed using a chi-square test. Regression analyses were carried out to determine whether the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants were associated with practices of self-medication. Results: A total of 203 of the undergraduate pharmacy students completed the questionnaire. More than half of the participants’ age ranged between 19 and 21 years old, the majority were females (77.3%), and 31.5% of the participants had family members employed in the healthcare sector. Most respondents showed good knowledge in a variety of domains: 97.5% acknowledged the potential for drug interaction with other medications, indicating a high awareness of proper self-medication practices. A positive attitude was found regarding participants’ attitudes toward self-medication, and 65.5% practiced self-medication, primarily for treating minor illnesses (75.9%). Common conditions included fever (83.3%), cough/cold/flu (76.8%), and headache (71.4%). Reasons for not self-medicating included the absence of illness (20.2%), lack of knowledge/prior experience (19.2%), and fear of using the wrong medication (18.7%). Only academic year level was the predictor of practicing self-medication within the last six months among the participants. Conclusions: Generally, the participants possessed good knowledge and positive attitudes toward self-medication. The study revealed no significant associations between demographic characteristics and knowledge or attitudes. Insights from this research contribute to understanding self-medication practices among pharmacy students in Penang, informing potential interventions to promote responsible self-medication practices. Full article

Introduction: We aimed to evaluate social media addiction in Romanian undergraduate nursing students and its association with academic performance, depression, and anxiety. Methods: We used a cross-sectional online survey to collect data among nursing undergraduate students enrolled at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Iuliu Hatieganu”, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The Social Media Addiction Scale-Student Form (SMAS-SF), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were used to assess social media addiction, depression, and anxiety, respectively. Results: A total of 90 nursing students participated in the study, of which 82 (91.1%) were females and 81 (90%) were of Romanian ethnicity. The median age of participants was 21 years (18–40). Males showed higher BDI total scores, SMAS-SF total scores, and STAI scale A state anxiety compared to females, and females showed higher STAI scale A trait anxiety compared to males, although these results were not statistically significant. Also, we found no significant difference in these variables between participants from different study years. Participants with no or mild depression had a significantly higher academic performance (p-value = 0.001), lower SMAS-SF (p-value = 0.004), and lower STAI scores (p-value < 0.001) compared to participants with borderline, moderate, or severe depression after performing multivariate regression analysis. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that depression was significantly associated with social media addiction, anxiety, and lower academic performance in Romanian undergraduate nursing students. Full article

(1) Background: This scoping review aims to explore the literature on feedback for pharmacy students during experiential learning, with a focus on identifying the modes of delivery of feedback and the perceived impact of feedback on student learning outcomes. (2) Methods: The scoping review was conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology and reported following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, EBSCO, ERIC, and ProQuest Central were searched electronically from their inception until the end of February 2023 using a combination of keywords and MeSH terms related to feedback, pharmacy education, and student learning outcomes. Data were synthesized narratively. (3) Results: This review included 13 studies published between 2008 and 2022. Almost half of the included studies were conducted in the USA (n = 6, 46%) and reported the perspective of undergraduate pharmacy students (n = 6, 46%). Verbal feedback was the most common mode of feedback delivery (n = 6, 46%). The enablers of effective feedback included timely feedback (n = 6, 46%), feedback provided in a goal-oriented and objective manner (n = 5, 40%), and student-specific feedback (n = 4, 30%). On the other hand, the most common impediments to feedback efficacy were providing extremely positive feedback and lack of constructive criticism. (4) Conclusions: Our findings highlight the importance of feedback model implementation in pharmacy education and preceptor training programs to ensure effective and quality feedback to pharmacy students. Full article

Leadership development in college is frequently cited as developing during undergraduate years. Nevertheless, some graduate and professional students develop further as leaders through involvement at the graduate level. This paper explores a case study examining the ways Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) students commenced leadership development during pharmacy school through their co-curricular involvement. Full article

Pharmaceutical residues end up in surface waters, impacting drinking water sources and contaminating the aquatic ecosystem. Pharmacists can play a role in reducing pharmaceutical residues, yet this is often not addressed in pharmacy undergraduate education. Therefore, we developed the educational module “Reducing Pharmaceuticals in Water” for pharmacy students; this was integrated in our pharmacy simulation game for third year Master of Pharmacy students at the University of Groningen. In this study, we aim to evaluate the effects of the module on students’ knowledge of pharmaceutical residues in water, to describe students’ experiences in taking the module, and to explore their attitudes towards green pharmacy education in general. This mixed-methods study included quantitative measurements, before and after students took the module (intervention group) and in a control group which did not receive the module. Data were collected between February 2023 and June 2023. Overall, 29 students took the module and 36 students were in the control group. The knowledge score of students in the intervention group (N = 29) increased significantly from 9.3 to 12.9 out of 22 (p < 0.001). The knowledge score of the students in the control group was (8.9 out of 22). Students found the e-learning and the patient cases the most exciting part of this module. Students also recognized the need to including environmental issues in pharmacy education. In conclusion, the module contributes towards improved knowledge and increased awareness of the impact of pharmaceuticals found in water. It represents a promising strategy to strengthen pharmacist’s role in mitigating the amount and the effect of pharmaceuticals on water and the environment in the future. Full article

In order to increase vaccination rates, the Government of Germany introduced vaccination against influenza and COVID-19 into the regular care administered by pharmacists. However, vaccination training is yet not integrated into the German pharmacy curriculum. Therefore, the Institute for Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacotherapy in Duesseldorf had developed an innovative vaccination course using high-fidelity simulation for students. To investigate the acceptance further, the course was carried out at three different German universities (Bonn, Duesseldorf, Greifswald). Students were asked to give their self-assessment before and after and satisfaction only after the training course. Responses from 33 participants from the University of Bonn, 42 from the University of Duesseldorf and 49 from the University of Greifswald were analyzed. Every participant at the respective universities showed a significant increase in their self-assessment and indicated a high level of satisfaction with the course. The results also did not differ significantly between the respective universities. Consequently, the results lead to the hypothesis that the satisfaction of pharmacy students with this kind of training using high-fidelity simulation is very high and attractive, and can be recommended for other German universities. The integration of such vaccination training into the German pharmacy curriculum might be a future step. Full article

The development of competency frameworks serves as the foundation for the development of competency-based education. It is vital to develop a country-specific framework to address the specific needs of the local population for pharmacy services. This study aimed to describe the development process of a competency framework for undergraduate pharmacy education in Kuwait with a unique matrix structure. The process started with the development of guiding principles for curriculum revision and implementation, as well as the identification of global educational outcomes. This process was followed by: (A) a needs assessment with key stakeholders; (B) development of the initial competency framework; and (C) refinement of the framework. Qualitative data were thematically analyzed to identify the main competency domains that students need to perform the identified entrustable professional activities (EPAs). Five population needs were identified by the needs assessment, with 17 EPAs suggested to fulfill those needs. In addition, 11 competency domains were identified. The initial competency framework was created as a 3 × 8 matrix, with 3 professional and 8 transversal competency domains. Refinement of the framework resulted in the removal of redundancies and the development of a global behavior competency profile. The development of a matrix competency framework and associated EPAs for Kuwait serves as a foundation for preparing pharmacists to fulfill local population needs and expanding the scope of practice in the country. Full article

Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) and entrustment decision making are rapidly becoming mainstream in competency-based education in the health professions. EPAs are the units of professional practice to entrust graduates with once they have developed the required competencies. They were conceived to enable a gradual increase in professional autonomy during training, by allowing trainees to practice activities in which they have demonstrated they have mastered well, with decreasing supervision. However, practicing health care unsupervised generally requires licensure. The question for pharmacy education, as well as for undergraduate medical education, is can students be given any autonomy in practice, even when they have fully mastered an EPA yet remain unlicensed? While entrustment decisions for licensed practitioners have autonomy consequences, some educators in undergraduate programs speak of ‘entrustment determinations’, to avoid decisions about students that affect patient care, in other words saying, we would trust you, rather than we will trust you. However, graduating learners without the experience of responsibility and reasonable autonomy creates a gap with full practice responsibilities, which may jeopardize patient safety after training. What can programs do to retain the power of using EPAs while at the same time guarding patient safety? Full article

Background and Objective: The role of the pharmacist in healthcare society is unique, since they are providers of health information and medication counseling to patients. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate Awareness, Perceptions, and Opinions towards Artificial intelligence (AI) among pharmacy undergraduate students at King Saud University (KSU), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was conducted between December 2022 and January 2023 using online questionnaires. The data collection was carried out using convenience sampling methods among senior pharmacy students at the College of Pharmacy, King Saud University. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 26 was used to analyze the data (SPSS). Results: A total of one hundred and fifty-seven pharmacy students completed the questionnaires. Of these, most of them (n = 118; 75.2%) were males. About 42%, (n = 65) were in their fourth year of study. Most of the students (n = 116; 73.9%) knew about AI. In addition, 69.4% (n = 109) of the students thought that AI is a tool that helps healthcare professionals (HCP). However, more than half 57.3% (n = 90) of the students were aware that AI would assist healthcare professionals in becoming better with the widespread use of AI. Furthermore, 75.1% of the students agreed that AI reduces errors in medical practice. The mean positive perception score was 29.8 (SD = 9.63; range-0–38). The mean score was significantly associated with age (p = 0.030), year of study (p = 0.040), and nationality (p = 0.013). The gender of the participants was found to have no significant association with the mean positive perception score (p = 0.916). Conclusions: Overall, pharmacy students showed good awareness of AI in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the majority of the students had positive perceptions about the concepts, benefits, and implementation of AI. Moreover, most students indicated that there is a need for more education and training in the field of AI. Consequently, early exposure to content related to AI in the curriculum of pharmacy is an important step to help in the wide use of these technologies in the graduates’ future careers. Full article

Background: The role of healthcare professionals, including pharmacists, is changing. Lifelong learning and continuing professional development (CPD) are more critical than ever for both current and future pharmacists in the face of global health challenges and new technologies, services and therapies that are continually and rapidly introduced into their daily practice. Currently, Japanese pharmacists’ licences are not renewable, although most developed countries have a renewal system. Therefore, understanding Japanese pharmacists’ perceptions of CPD is the first step in reviewing undergraduate and postgraduate education. Methods: The target population was Japanese pharmacists, i.e., community pharmacy pharmacists and hospital pharmacists. The participants were administered a questionnaire with 18 items related to continuing professional development. Results: Our study found that regarding item “Q16 Do you think you need further education in your undergraduate education to continue your professional development?”, (a) the ability to identify one’s own problems and issues, (b) the ability to make plans to solve problems and issues, (c) the ability to carry out plans to solve problems and issues and (d) the ability to repeat steps of self-development, approximately 60% of pharmacists answered that these aspects were “necessary” or “quite necessary”. Conclusion: As part of universities’ responsibility for the lifelong education of pharmacists, it is necessary to systematically conduct teaching seminars or undergraduate education or postgraduate education on self-development while training pharmacists to meet the needs of citizens. Full article

Background: An innovative approach of Norm Balance is proposed under the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). In this approach, the measurement score of subjective norm is weighted by the relative importance of others, and the measurement score of self-identity is weighted by the relative importance of self. The study objective was to examine the effect of Norm Balance to predict behavioral intentions in two groups of college students. Methods: Cross-sectional surveys were used in two studies. For 153 business undergraduates, Study 1 examined three common intentions: eating a low-fat diet, exercising regularly, and dressing business-like. For 176 PharmD students, Study 2 examined three pharmacy-related intentions: informing relatives about counterfeit medications, buying prescription medications online, and completing a pharmacy residency. The relative importance of others vs. self was measured by asking study subjects to allocate 10 points between important others and oneself. Two sets of regressions were conducted and compared across six intentions using the traditional model and the Norm Balance model. Results: The 12 regressions explained 59–77% of intention variance. The variance explained by the two models was similar. When subjective norm or self-identity was non-significant in the traditional model, the corresponding Norm Balance component was significant in the Norm Balance model, except for eating a low-fat diet. When both subjective norm and self-identity were significant in the traditional model, the two Norm Balance components were significant in the Norm Balance model with increased coefficients. Conclusions: The proposed approach of Norm Balance provides a different view about the significance and coefficients of subjective norm and self-identity toward intention prediction. Full article

Pharmacists are increasingly involved in medication history taking, medication reconciliation, and review in their daily practice. The objectives of this study were to investigate third-year pharmacy students’ self-assessed competency in medication reviews and gather their feedback for further development of medication review training in their curriculum. The study was conducted as a self-assessment of third-year pharmacy students at the completion of their second three-month internship period in a community pharmacy in 2017–2018. The students were assigned to review medications of a real patient under the supervision of a medication review accredited pharmacist during their internship. The self-assessment was carried out via an e-form, which was created for this study. Recently established national medication review competence recommendations for pharmacists were used as a reference. Students (n = 95, participation rate: 93%) self-assessed their competency as good or very good in 91% (n = 28) of the competency areas listed in the self-assessment. The highest proportion of competencies that were self-assessed as good or very good included using medication risk management databases and evaluating the clinical importance of the information (97%, n = 92). The lowest proportion of competencies was found in applying clinical information from the key laboratory tests to patient care and knowing which laboratory tests are most important to monitor in each condition and medication (36%, n = 34). The students suggested that their pharmacy education should contain more medication review assignments as group work and that an elective course on medication reviews should be compulsory for all pharmacy students. Full article

This study aimed to evaluate pharmacy students’ perceptions regarding the correlations among the quality of faculty members, institutional resources, an integrated-based curriculum of pharmaceutical dosage forms (ICPDF), and learning outcome attainment. The current study participants have attended courses (semesters 2 to 6) through the ICPDF in the Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia. We distributed survey instruments to 212 pharmacy undergraduate students after one year of the curriculum implementation. We asked the students to fill in the instrument in which the indicators consist of a 7-point Likert scale. The data were analyzed using SmartPLS, which included measurement and structural models through PLS-SEM. The findings informed that the quality of faculty members and institutional resources significantly predict ICPDF. Similarly, ICPDF plays a significant role in affecting learning outcome attainment. The quality of faculty members and institutional resources were not related to learning outcome attainment. Significances of differences were informed among students’ years in university regarding learning outcome attainment and ICPDF. However, insignificant differences emerged based on gender. The findings demonstrate the benefits of using the PLS-SEM approach to create a valid and reliable model, assessing the correlations between independent variables with the ICPDF and learning outcome attainment as two dependent variables. Full article

This paper presents a microeconomic analysis of the occupational choices that individuals make after graduating from higher education. Specifically, a binomial logit model of the self-employment decision, which can be seen as a special case of a model of utility maximization, is estimated for a large, nationally representative sample of Spanish bachelor’s degree holders. The estimation of the logit model allows one to analyze the influence of the university degree and individual sociodemographic characteristics on the probability of becoming self-employed five years after graduation. Results show that graduates in Odontology, Physiotherapy, Architecture, Law, Fine Arts, Pharmacy, and Psychology are the most likely to become self-employed. Surprisingly, financially literate individuals (economics and finance-related undergraduate degree holders) are less likely to start their own businesses. The paper also shows that women are less likely to be self-employed than men, but those graduates whose mothers obtained a university degree have an increased likelihood of being self-employed. The paper highlights the need for career guidance for undergraduates contemplating a career in self-employment. Full article

Pharmacy educators are grappling with concerns around curriculum overload and core pharmacist competencies in a rapidly changing and increasingly complex healthcare landscape. Adaptive expertise provides a conceptual framework to guide educators as they design instructional activities that can support students on their journey towards becoming pharmacists who can perform procedural tasks efficiently, as well as creatively handle new and difficult-to-anticipate problems that arise regularly in pharmacy practice. This article explores undergraduate pharmacy education through a cognitive psychology lens and foregrounds three instructional design strategies which support the development of adaptive expertise: (1) cognitive integration, (2) productive failure, and (3) inventing with contrasting cases. These three evidence-based strategies cultivate long-term learning and provide a practical mechanism to combat curriculum overload and backwards-facing assessments. Pharmacy education can encourage the development of procedural and conceptual knowledge and position pharmacy students to excel as they move into more complicated and ambiguous roles in our healthcare system. Full article