Bullying in the Clinical Training of Pharmacy Students

Abstract

Objective. To determine whether bullying is a significant factor in the clinical training of pharmacy students. Methods. The literature as well as the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) Standards and American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) surveys were reviewed for mention and/or measurement of bullying behaviors in the clinical training of pharmacy students. The authors used a Delphi process to define bullying behavior. The consensus definition was used to analyze 2,087 in-house student evaluations of preceptors for evidence of bullying behaviors. The authors mapped strings of text from in-house student comments to different, established categories of bullying behaviors. Results. The ACPE Standards and AACP surveys contained no mention or measures of bullying. The 2013 AACP survey data reported overwhelmingly positive preceptor ratings. Of the 2,087 student evaluations of preceptors, 119 (5.7%) had at least 1 low rating. Within those 119 survey instruments, 34 comments were found describing bullying behaviors. Students' responses to the AACP survey were similar to data from the national cohort. Conclusions. Given the evidence that bullying behaviors occur in pharmacy education and that bullying has long-term and short-term damaging effects, more attention should be focused on this problem. Efforts should include addressing bullying in ACPE Standards and AACP survey tools developing a consensus definition for bullying and conducting more research into bullying in the clinical training of pharmacy students.

Determining Indicators of High-Quality Application Activities for Team-Based Learning

“…The overarching goal is reaching a consensus on the topic being studied. 31 Specifically, in pharmacy education the process has been used for creating consensus on guiding principles 32 and competencies 33 for student leadership development, developing consensus on competencies for professional advocacy, 34 investigating students' perceptions of professional engagement, 35 defining bullying behaviors in clinical training of pharmacy students, 36 creating consensus on criteria to assess communication skills of pharmacy students, 37 and defining the roles and education of veterinary pharmacists and veterinary pharmacy specialists. 38 In examining quality, the Delphi technique has been used to select quality indicators in healthcare, 39 develop quality criteria for patient decision support technologies, 40 and create quality indicators for general practice management.…”

An intersectional review of discrimination and harassment experiences in pharmacy: Findings from the 2019 National Pharmacist Workforce Survey

“…Future research should also examine the experiences of residents, students, technicians, and other pharmacy staff, as they are likely experiencing discrimination, harassment, and bullying as well. [38][39][40][41][42] Repeating these analyses would also allow for trends to be monitored over time.…”

Educators of Healthcare Professionals: Agreeing a Shared Purpose

“…The focus of our work so far has been on identifying and achieving consensus on the baseline values and activities that all educators share. It would be gratifying to think that all educators are working to the basic standards reflected in the HEVA framework, but this is unlikely to be the case in view of the number of reports of educational shortcomings that appear so often in the literature (for example, Fullerton et al 2019;Knapp et al 2014;McCrann, Flitcroft & Loughman 2020;Russell & Foulkes 2019). Despite widespread concern about standards in healthcare education, few professions have as yet risen to the challenge of mandating basic educational skills and knowledge as a condition of primary qualification.…”