Relationship between pharmacy students’ resilience scores and their leadership, work experience and academic performance

Abstract

The goal is to examine if there is a relationship between students’ Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) Scale scores, demographics, work experience, leadership style, personality types and academic performance. Three cohorts of third-year pharmacy (P3) students completed the RSA and demographic questions. Students’ academic performance, work experience, leadership preferences and demographics were compared. Over 850 students from three cohorts scored on five RSA dimensions – personal competence (4.10 ± 0.58), social competence (3.64 ± 0.75), family coherence (4.18 ± 0.73), social support (4.47 ± 0.59) and personal structure (3.93 ± 0.70) (5 = highest resilience). Social competence and personal structure scores were statistically significantly different from other dimensions. Students with greater work experience, preference for leadership and extroverted personality types had higher scores in social competence and personal structure. Based on this research, it is essential to foster leadership development and encourage work experience to support students in building relationships (social competence) and improving organizational skills (personal structure), since the lowest RSA scores were in these two domains.

An investigation of academic resilience, resilience, and empathy in pharmacy students: Implications for pharmacy education

“…Students with prior work experience, whether full-time or part-time, exhibited higher academic resilience scores compared to those without such experience. This observation aligns with a study among pharmacy students in the USA, supporting the notion that work experience can bolster resilience and potentially contribute to academic success (Camiel et al, 2023). Conversely, no statistically significant differences were observed in academic resilience scores when considering other demographic variables such as gender, age, and current employment status.…”

“…The analysis provided insights into the interrelationships between academic resilience, general resilience, and empathy, particularly as they relate to academic success, quantified by CGPA and GPA metrics. Importantly, this study's findings align with previous research, one of which, conducted at the same university, established a link between academic resilience and academic performance (Abubakar et al, 2021;Camiel et al, 2023). As levels of academic achievement increased, a corresponding rise in APRS-16 scores was observed, highlighting the role played by academic resilience in dealing with educational challenges, particularly pertinent in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, where adaptability to unexpected educational disruptions has proven invaluable.…”