Pharmacy Education, Make Way for GenZ.

Although our classrooms are filled with students spanning multiple generations, students entering pharmacy school are largely members of Generation Z (GenZ). To optimize pharmacy education in and outside of the classroom, we must appreciate the distinctions making GenZ unique. GenZ students want to change the world! Although much of this population is currently emerging in classrooms and careers, preliminary observations indicate they are loyal, hard-working, self-sufficient, willing to earn hierarchical advancement, and may change jobs less frequently compared with predecessors. They emerge as one of the most socially responsible generations, passionate about diversity and inclusion.1 They are more likely to choose a career path, workplace, or educational institution for reasons of social responsibility, rather than salary, compared with previous generations. They are also creative, innovative, and willing to try new things without fear of failure, including entrepreneurialism. They are financially astute and careful to make choices ensuring solid return on investment.1 Not surprisingly, most are engaged daily with multiple social media platforms. They care about their digital and social impact and focus on individuality with a desire for customization. GenZ members are uniquely equipped to adapt to today's rapidly changing health care needs. This commentary describes attributes, needs, and perspectives of the GenZ student that must be understood by today's pharmacy educators to assist with tailoring educational strategies. Information presented is summarized from a review of primary and periodical literature, including both research and anecdotal perspectives. We hope that this will be a starting point for further discussion within the academy.

Comparison of student performance in therapeutics and communications courses to outcomes of objective structured clinical examinations: A retrospective analysis.

INTRODUCTION: The objective was to examine the association between course grades and objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) performances in a pharmacy student cohort. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of demographics, final grades in the Therapeutics I through IV and Communications courses, and multiple OSCE scores (therapeutic knowledge and general communication skills [GCS]) was performed for two cohorts. RESULTS: Female students scored higher than male students on the warfarin OSCE therapeutic knowledge (P = .008) and GCS scores (P = .02). Age was inversely correlated with warfarin OSCE therapeutic knowledge score (P = .001). The warfarin OSCE therapeutic knowledge score was positively related to Therapeutics II final grades (P < .001). The Communications course final grade was positively correlated to the warfarin OSCE faculty-rated GCS score (P = .005). Therapeutics final grades were not significantly related to station scores of a multi-station OSCE (P > .05). The final regression model included gender and Therapeutics II final grade and explained 6% of the variance in warfarin OSCE therapeutic knowledge scores. CONCLUSIONS: A number of significant associations were found between demographics, final course grades, and specific OSCE scores. A regression model was significant, but only explained a low percentage of the warfarin OSCE therapeutic knowledge score variance, suggesting other factors not evaluated had a greater effect on scores. This research suggests that OSCEs play an important role in demonstrating student competency in educational domains other than knowledge and brings forth new data suggesting that age and/or gender may influence OSCE performance.