Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-26-2023
Abstract
Introduction
While global health education in pharmacy expands, limited research has described the outcome of completing a global health area of concentration on career decisions, perceptions on cultural sensitivity, health disparity awareness, and global health competencies among pharmacists and students.
Methods
This mixed methods study enrolled 21 graduates and 17 student pharmacists who participated in a global health concentration at one school of pharmacy in the United States. Data sources included graduate interviews and surveys, student pharmacist focus groups, and global health competency self-assessments.
Results
Five themes emerged among graduates: (1) skills were applicable to diverse settings, (2) early exposure to underserved care prepared graduates for current practice, (3) participation impacted the lens through which graduates viewed careers, (4) participation influenced patient care in current practice, and (5) graduates gained insight on complex global health issues. Three themes were identified among student pharmacists: (1) the program provided opportunities to personalize education, (2) participants gained insight through hands-on experience, and (3) participants developed new perspectives on approaching underserved care. Many graduates (77.4%) currently practiced in an underserved setting. Graduates and fourth professional year students reported improvement in all seven global health competency domains.
Conclusions
A global health concentration in pharmacy curricula can facilitate skills and global health competencies that are applicable across a wide variety of patient care contexts. This concentrated experience provided opportunities to further develop career interests and personalize education, creating a cadre of pharmacists dedicated towards addressing health disparities and serving the underserved.
Recommended Citation
Ko J, Jonkman L, Sharma VB, Liu E, Connor SE. Assessing perspectives of a global health area of concentration within the PharmD curriculum. Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2023;15(11):933-942. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cptl.2023.09.002
Copyright
Elsevier
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
Health Services Research Commons, International Public Health Commons, Medical Education Commons, Other Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Commons, Other Public Health Commons
Comments
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, volume 15, issue 11, in 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cptl.2023.09.002
The Creative Commons license below applies only to this version of the article.