Situational judgment using ethical reasoning in Saudi undergraduate pharmacy students.

INTRODUCTION: There is a paramount need for moral development for pharmacists and pharmacy students to practice the patient-centered profession. We aimed to explore the current situational judgment utilizing ethical reasoning among undergraduate pharmacy students. METHODS: A set of ten ethical dilemmas, representing potential real-life situations that the students come across in the university and may face in the future as a pharmacist were developed by a team of students, academic staff, and stakeholders. These ethical dilemmas were validated, checked for accuracy, and piloted. An online questionnaire was created consisting of these ten scenarios as open-ended questions and administered to fourth year and fifth year PharmD students in a public university located at the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, asking them how they would react in that situation. Responses of the participants were analyzed using thematic analysis independently by four researchers and inter-rater agreement were achieved through consensus. RESULTS: Out of 205, 186 students completed the questionnaire with a response rate of 90.7%. Analysis and resulted in the generation of 32 codes, which were then categorized into seven overarching themes: student engagement, social and professional responsibility, academic integrity, legal obligation, moral obligation, signposting, and moral engagement and patient safety. CONCLUSIONS: Undergraduate pharmacy students experience complex state of mind in connection with ethical reasoning. The participants' situational judgment were driven by cultural norm, authority, and responsibility. Student engagement is also affected by the state of mind and feelings of mutual trust, perceived cultural influence and peer pressure. The students were prone to seek help from university administrators or teachers when faced with situations in which they were helpless.

Identifying the facilitators and barriers for scientific writing among pharmacy students in College of Pharmacy, Umm Al-Qura University - A qualitative study.

INTRODUCTION: English is the dominant international language for academic publication, thus mastering English writing is required for a successful career in research. Our objective was to identify facilitators and barriers to English language scientific writing among pharmacy students in Umm Al-Qura University in Saudi Arabia (where English is not the native language). METHODS: We used face-to-face semi-structured interviews in the Arabic language with fourth- and fifth-year students of the college to gain insight into their perspectives. An interview guide was prepared using the Arabic language. The interviews were conducted at the college of pharmacy. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. RESULTS: Twenty-three participants agreed to be interviewed and signed the consent form. The mean interview time was 10 min. Two researchers independently analyzed the qualitative data using thematic analysis and agreed on the coding and themes. A third researcher verified the themes on randomly selected transcripts. The analysis showed main facilitator themes of: having rich vocabulary, competency in English language, having new ideas, increased writing activities, and individual guidance. Barrier themes were: lack of vocabulary, incompetency in English language, time constraint, lack of ideas, lack of writing activities, and lack of guidance. CONCLUSIONS: Participants of this study showed limited understanding of scientific writing. This study also found that pharmacy students need to develop their writing skills through practice sessions and university courses.