Assessment of pharmacy students' perceived business management knowledge: Would exclusion of business management topics be detrimental to pharmacy curricula?

Internships in Pharmaceutical Students’ Development

“…There is a wide variety of skills pharmacists need. Firstly, there is a need for business decision making competences [42]. Such skills include: ethical standards, communication skills, strategic and multidimensional thinking, an in-depth understanding of the healthcare system, teamwork and collaborative skills [16,25,41].…”

A Pharmacy Business Management Simulation Exercise as a Practical Application of Business Management Material and Principles

“…As exclusion of business management topics from the curriculum leads to pharmacy graduates with significantly low business management knowledge, 8 and these results suggest the deficit would not be met during IPPEs and the intern experience. Combining these results with students' slight to moderate agreement that these business management topics should be a required part of the curriculum is quite concerning.…”

“…Many students have stated the topics covered within the business management portion of the curriculum were "foreign" to them given the heavy science-based focus of these subjects. While business management lecture material improves students' self-perceived knowledge of the topics, 8 the pharmacy simulation program provided students a tangible and active-learning application of these "foreign" topics, which they are, more often than not, seeing for the first time since their undergraduate studies.…”

“…[5][6][7] Another study found the positive effects that business management lecture material had on students' self-perceived knowledge and understanding, and more importantly the significantly low levels of business management knowledge and understanding students had if these topics were not covered in the classroom. 8 While business management topics are important and need attention within the curriculum, how these topics are taught is still scattered among accounting, economics, finance, management, marketing, and leadership material 9 and, more often than not, tailored to the course coordinator's and/or instructors' specific area of expertise and/or interest.…”

Identification of Key Business and Management Skills Needed for Pharmacy Graduates

“…There are many examples on the design, development, and assessment of pharmacy management courses in the published literature. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22] This study has limitations. First, this study was based on the opinion of preceptors associated with one pharmacy college.…”