Pharmacy student professional identity formation: a scoping review.

PURPOSE: Transitioning from being pharmacy students to pharmacists is challenging. Students need to reconcile their professional aspirations and what they have learnt with the realities of practice. A smooth transition can be hampered when they are unable to enact the role they have envisaged or if their expectations are not met. These challenges relate to professional identity. A key challenge for pharmacy educators is how best to support the professional identity formation (PIF) of pharmacy students. To assist with this challenge, we conducted a scoping review to identify factors influencing pharmacy students' PIF and pedagogical strategies to support PIF. METHODS: In September 2018, we undertook a scoping review of all contemporary research investigating pharmacy student PIF including all relevant qualitative, quantitative, theoretical, and gray literature. We searched eight databases for the review: MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase, Australian Education Index, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. Literature published between January 2008 and September 2018 was reviewed and screened using inclusion/exclusion criteria. The selected articles were charted and thematically analyzed. RESULTS: We included 22 articles in the review. Studies generally concurred about the importance of attending to PIF throughout the whole pharmacy curriculum. Yet, those studies reporting on pharmacy students' professional identities found that students experienced challenges forming their identities. While several curriculum interventions supporting PIF have been implemented, these tended to be one-offs and there was an absence of interventions engaging key stakeholders including placement preceptors, other health professionals, and patients/consumers. CONCLUSION: Supporting the formation of pharmacy students' professional identity, while recognized as an important goal for pharmacy education, requires further empirical inquiry. Pedagogical practices focused on identity formation including adopting an integrative curricular approach are required.

Pharmacy students' interpretation of academic integrity.

OBJECTIVE: To explore pharmacy students' recognition and interpretation of situations constituting breaches of academic integrity. METHODS: A survey instrument comprising 10 hypothetical student(s) scenarios was completed by 852 students in the bachelor of pharmacy program at an Australian university. The scenarios were relevant to current modes of assessment and presented degrees of ambiguity around academic integrity. RESULTS: Identification of the hypothetical student(s) at fault, particularly in the deliberately ambiguous scenarios, was not related to the respondents' year of study or sex. Students with fewer years of postsecondary education were more definitive in their interpretation of contentious cases. Respondents from all 4 years of study reported witnessing many of these behaviors among their peers. CONCLUSION: This study provided novel insight into the ambiguity surrounding academic integrity and students' perceptions relating to the deliberate or inadvertent involvement of other parties.

Exploring health literacy competencies in community pharmacy.

BACKGROUND: Health literacy is the ability to obtain, interpret and use health information. Low rates of health literacy in Australia have been suggested, but no validated measure exists. OBJECTIVE: To explore health literacy competencies in a sample of community pharmacy consumers. DESIGN: Structured interviews were undertaken by a team of researchers during August, 2009. The instrument was derived from available literature, measuring aspects of functional, interactive and critical health literacy regarding use of medicines. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Twelve community pharmacies in the Brisbane region, Australia. RESULTS: Six hundred and forty-seven consumers participated; 64% were women. A wide distribution of ages was evident. English was the first language of 89% of respondents. More than half of the sample (55%), predominantly aged 26-45 years, was tertiary educated. While 87% of respondents recognized a sample prescription, 20% could not readily match the prescription to a labelled medicine box. Eighty-two percentage of respondents interpreted 'three times a day' appropriately, but interpretation of a standard ancillary label was highly variable. Advanced age, less formal education, non-English-speaking background and male gender were independently related to lower performance in some variables. DISCUSSION: This health literacy measure applied comprehension and numeracy skills required of adults receiving prescription medications. While the majority of consumers adequately performed these tasks, some behaviours and responses were of sufficient concern to propose additional verbal and written information interventions by pharmacy staff. CONCLUSIONS: This research provides insight into issues that may affect consumers' appropriate use of medicines and self-efficacy. Initiatives to improve public health literacy are warranted.

Building critical reflection skills for lifelong learning in the emergent landscape of a national registration and accreditation scheme.

In 2010 many of the health disciplines in Australia will be involved in national registration and accreditation, to ensure a more sustainable and flexible health workforce for the future. To this end, in each of the health professions, there is an increasing emphasis on reflective practice and lifelong learning to maintain practice competency. This research focuses on academic teaching and learning in the Pharmacy undergraduate curriculum to develop an indicator tool of graduate practice skills before the student enters the practice internship year. The Graduated Descriptors Competency Tool was developed by means of state, territory, and national stakeholder collaboration. The aim of the project was to assist the scaffolding processes around undergraduate practice teaching and learning. Students on experiential placements have used the tool to demonstrate their current practice skills and the learning required to attain competency during their internship year. Students are guided to develop critical reflection skills for deep understanding and insight into the continued learning and professional development required to maintain long-term health care expertise.