Examination of Job Satisfaction, Achievements, and Employment Preparedness among College of Pharmacy Alumni: A Study From Qatar

Background: Job satisfaction in healthcare is of special interest as has a direct relation with the quality of care provided to patients. It is affected by several factors including the nature of the work, level of educational preparedness and achievements. Objectives: This study aims to explore College of Pharmacy - Qatar University (CPH-QU) alumni’s satisfaction with employment and the profession, level of educational preparedness and achievements in the practice. Methods: A sequential exploratory mixed-method designs was adopted. Seven Focus Group (FG) discussions were performed and a self-reported survey distributed to all alumni graduated between 2011-2020. Results: A total of 135 alumni answered the survey (response rate 63%). Majority of respondents were non-Qatari (97%) and 52% of them were recent graduates and obtained doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) as an additional degree (58%). The study findings suggest that CPH alumni are moderately satisfied with the practice and the profession, and Qatari alumni are more satisfied. However, majority of them (44.55%) are not satisfied with the available opportunities for professional development. The level of satisfaction about achievements was significantly high only in the field of research and presentation activities. A general agreement about the level of educational preparedness was dominant, especially in clinical knowledge and skills and experiential training they received. Conclusion: The overall satisfaction about workplace and the profession in CPH-QU alumni is moderate and higher among Qatari graduates. Alumni agreed that they were well prepared to meet the practice requirements and mostly satisfied in achieving research and presentation related activities.

A global assessment of distance pharmacy education amid COVID-19: teaching, assessment and experiential training

Objectives To explore pharmacy colleges’ experiences and challenges worldwide with the transition to online teaching during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods From the six World Health Organization regions, 28 countries with the highest number of COVID-19 cases were identified, and 111 pharmacy colleges were randomly selected from these countries. Two online surveys were sent to faculty members and senior administrators. They assessed changes in teaching and learning, experiential training, assessment, readiness for and challenges with distance e-learning and work-related stress. Key findings Data were collected from 46 colleges. The majority (80.4%) of colleges transitioned to distance e-learning. On-site experiential training was discontinued in 55.5% of colleges and 25.0% redesigned on-site training into remote learning experiences. Assessments were modified in 75.9% of colleges. Assuring the integrity of assessments and delivering practical classes were the most prominent faculty challenges. The majority of faculty (75.0%) and administrators (61.9%) reported moderate work-related stress. Nevertheless, most academics felt that they received adequate support from their institutions and had positive perceptions of the transition to distance e-learning during the pandemic. Conclusions The COVID-19 pandemic required drastic changes for most programs’ teaching methods. Our results showed that educational institutions were somewhat able to support faculty and the needs of educational programs were largely met. However, academic rigour and provision of experiential training can be improved. Faculty emotional support and training needs were not fully addressed in these difficult times. These results shed light on how the global pharmacy academy has addressed the COVID-19 pandemic and help rethink crisis response models.

Development of professional behaviour with an additional experiential year in pharmacy curriculum: students’ and preceptors’ perspectives

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine whether an additional year of experiential training fosters the development of professional behaviours in pharmacy students. Surveyed cohorts included experiential year one (EY1) and two (EY2) students, compared to their clinical preceptors. Methods: A validated survey instrument called APIPHANI was utilised to assess professionalism across five distinct domains that aligned with the American Pharmacists Association (AphA) toolkit. Data were analysed by a 2-tailed Mann-Whitney U test. Results: EY2 students exhibited non-statistically significant higher numerical scores than EY1 students in both Knowledge (domain 1) and Professional Involvement (domain 3), and nearly equivalent scores in Proactivity (domain 2) and Integrity (domain 5). Conclusions: These results suggest that an additional year of experiential training expands the knowledge with the EY2 students, moving closer towards the preceptors’ level of knowledge. Students harboured stronger community involvement than preceptors, with the highest reported by EY2 students.

The Danish sports chiropractic landscape: an exploration of practice characteristics and salient developmental issues

Background As is the case around the globe, the Danish chiropractic community appears to be an active service provider for the athletic sub-population. However, a paucity of evidence elucidating the experiences, perceptions, and practices of individuals who identify as ‘sports chiropractors’ complicates strategic development efforts. Methods A sequential mixed-methods study was conceptualized in which interview responses from seven purposefully selected stakeholders provided context and informed a national descriptive survey exploring practice characteristics and opinions regarding sports chiropractic among Danish chiropractors. Results Thematic highlights included divided opinions on the criteria that define a sports chiropractor, the role of a chiropractor functioning beyond the clinic setting, and the need for a structured approach to developing sports chiropractic as a legitimate sub-specialty. The survey response rate was 34.9% (227 of 651), with 27% of responders identifying as a ‘sports chiropractor’. Compared to non-sports chiropractors, sports chiropractors engaged in a significantly higher level of interprofessional practice (3.8 versus 2.7 partners), in particular medical doctors (p = 0.016) and personal trainers (p < 0.001). Whether participants identified as a sports chiropractor or not, there was consensus that a high-quality post-graduate qualification and continued education was important. Generally speaking, the framing of sports chiropractic into a protected title was not a priority. Conclusion The Danish sports chiropractor tends to be male, has a specialist education and engages other chiropractors, medical practitioners and professional trainers more often as practice partners than generalist chiropractors. The position of the sports chiropractor as a ‘knowledgeable expert’ was seen as more important than establishing a protected title. Experiential training appears to be an untapped resource for developing real-world competency and gaining greater professional exposure. Given the potential for development across Europe, more focus is required on a strategic plan for embedding chiropractic professionals in inter-professional athletic health and performance practice settings.

Experiential training during COVID-19 pandemic: a virtual attachment experience from a college of pharmaceutical sciences in the United Arab Emirates

Description: The COVID-19 pandemic compelled the traditional higher educational institutions to make a quick transition to the virtual instruction model. Considering the COVID-19 restrictions, the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology at Ras Al Khaimah College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, United Arab Emirates restructured their original onsite experiential training for final year Bachelor of Pharmacy students as a virtual online experience to ensure educational continuity. Evaluation: The virtual experiential training was conducted over two weeks and was imparted employing different virtual platforms like Google Classroom, Google Meet, Google Forms, Google Docs, etc. As a part of the community pharmacy training, the students were given different e-activities and tasks like e-case scenario analysis and interpretation, e-prescription screening, virtual patient education and were shown various 3-D animated videos related to community pharmacy. For the hospital training, the students were given different e-cases for developing pharmaceutical care plans, e-case scenario analysis, e-drug information query and were shown different animated videos related to rounds of different hospital departments. Conclusion: The virtual experiential training was successfully conducted achieving the desired learning outcomes and was well received by the students. Based on this experience, it is recommended that efforts should be made to develop an integrated model for experiential training in the future, which can be an amalgamation of online tools and traditional experiential methods.