The Impact of Leadership Program Formatting on Perceived Development Within Pharmacy Cohorts.

Objective. To assess the impact of variable leadership development program formats on perceived participant growth.Methods. In 2020, the Phi Lambda Sigma national office began offering national Leader Academies to members, while University of South Florida Health Taneja College of Pharmacy simultaneously offered a Leader Academy program to its Phi Lambda Sigma students. Both programs used virtual leadership development tools from GiANT Worldwide, but differed in meeting frequency, content focus, and participant diversity. A 17-question pre- and postsurvey was developed from the Emotional Intelligence Leadership Inventory. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to compare the cohorts.Results. Twenty-two respondents in the national cohort (66.7% response rate) and 15 in the single-institution cohort (100% response rate) were included. There was more diversity in age, ethnicity, and previous education in the national cohort. Significant improvements in perceived growth were noted in almost all areas. The only decrease noted was the national cohort response to "I strive to improve myself." The overall change in mean response values was generally higher for the single-institution cohort. Qualitative data supported these results and showed more notable references to emotional intelligence in the national cohorts (∼50%) as compared to the single-institution cohort (<25%).Conclusion. Study results suggest that participation in a longitudinal leadership development program, regardless of cohort format, leads to perceived participant improvement in three categories. However, perceived benefit within each of these categories may vary depending on the cohort. Future studies are needed to further evaluate specific leadership arenas and validate the leadership assessment tool.

Correlation between active-learning coursework and student retention of core content during advanced pharmacy practice experiences.

OBJECTIVE: To implement an active-learning approach in a pharmacotherapy course sequence in the second year (P2) and third (P3) year of a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program and determine whether the pedagogical changes correlated with retention of core content in the fourth year (P4). DESIGN: Class sessions were transitioned from slides-based lectures to discussion-based active-learning pedagogy. ASSESSMENT: A comprehensive examination was created and administered to assess student retention of therapeutic topics taught. Students demonstrated significantly improved overall scores on questions derived from the active-learning pedagogy used in Pharmacotherapy II and III compared to those derived from Pharmacotherapy I in which content was delivered by lecture. CONCLUSION: The use of active-learning strategies over lecture-based methods in pharmacotherapy courses resulted in higher retention of core content. Students' performance in areas taught using the discussion-based methodology was superior to that which was taught using lecture-based slide presentations.