A nationwide cross-sectional survey of student experiential practice at community pharmacies in South Korea

Abstract

BackgroundIn South Korea, community pharmacy experiential practice (CPEP) is very important because most pharmacists (71.8%) work in community pharmacies, which also employ the majority of students after graduation. The present study investigated student responses to the current CPEP status, suggestions for improvement, and advancement in their competency after practice based on evaluation of Community Pharmacy Experiential Practice Model (CPEPM) outcomes.MethodsA nationwide cross-sectional, self-administered online survey was conducted in 2017 for the sixth-year pharmacy students who completed CPEP, using 50 item questionnaire. The answers were evaluated using the 4-point Likert scale, used a scoring system from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Responses of 1 and 2 were considered negative, and 3 and 4 were considered positive. To identify factors affecting CPEPM outcomes, multivariate linear regression analysis was performed.ResultsInitially, 1138 students participated in the survey. Of these, responses from 492 students were excluded due to missing data and eventually, data from 646 students were included in the analysis. In total, 95% of students responded in the affirmative that practical training influenced their future career decision. In addition, 78.5% of students were satisfied with the training. Further, they responded that their ability improved based on CPEPM outcomes. The most positive capability change was in the subdomain “personal and professional development”, followed by “inter professional collaboration”.ConclusionsStudents responded with the higher rating for satisfaction factor, who regarded CPEP as helpful in future career decision making, and those who wanted to practice elective Advanced Pharmacy Practice Education at a community pharmacy had a positive CPEPM outcome, while age was found to be a negative factor in terms of the regression analysis. These are valuable findings as they represent the current student perception of CPEP nationwide. They provide a basis to improve the quality of CPEP-based education not only in Korea, but in other countries as well.

Students' experience and evaluation of community pharmacy internship in Iraq

“…In a study conducted in South Korea in 2019 that examined students' experiential practice at community pharmacies, only a small percentage of students claimed that the knowledge they learned in school could be applied in the real world. This was similar to the finding of the current study (Kim et al, 2019). It seems that educational institutions should have the necessary tools to ensure that students are wellprepared for the career path and apply their knowledge in practice.…”

“…The inadequate time devoted to the training to get the desired benefits and information was reported as one of the main challenges for nearly half of the students. This was comparable with the study of Kim and researchers in which less than half of students claimed that there was a lack of educational training time (Kim et al, 2019). The reason for this may attributed to the time when this study was conducted, which was during the COVID-19 pandemic, where lockdown and local restrictions were in place, which limited the working hours of community pharmacies.…”

“…Moreover, the present study reported that students who received the training in a pharmacy located in the centre had a higher score in their perception of the training programme than those in a pharmacy at the periphery. In a study in South Korea, the practice site was one of the factors that affected the changes in community pharmacy experiential outcomes (Kim et al, 2019). This might be explained by the fact that the pharmacies that are located in the centre serve a larger number of patients, and thus the students learn more than the pharmacy, which is at the periphery.…”

Transportation as a barrier to colorectal cancer care

“…Veterans who responded “Sometimes”, “Often”, or “Always” were categorized as having experienced transportation barriers, while those that selected “Never” were classified as having no transportation barriers [ 11 ]. Consistent with prior studies that have assessed transportation barriers [ 11 ] and cross-sectional surveys [ 23 – 25 ], Veterans who did not respond or reported “Don’t know” were excluded from analysis ( n = 5).…”

Impact of International Accreditation in Pharmacy Education: Pharmacy School Students’ Perspective

“…17 This is in agreement with results of research done on student in South Korea which emphasized the importance of community pharmacy as a site of training. 18 Results in Figure 4; B showed that around half of the participants (51%) agreed that quality of the educational program improved after certification and 27% disagreed. As for the quality of basic science and clinical instruction, 40.5% agreed that it was improved.…”