Pharmacy Students’ Attitudes Toward Debt

Objective. To examine pharmacy students’ attitudes toward debt.Methods. Two hundred thirteen pharmacy students at the University of Minnesota were surveyed using items designed to assess attitudes toward debt. Factor analysis was performed to identify common themes. Subgroup analysis was performed to examine whether students’ debt-tolerant attitudes varied according to their demographic characteristics, past loan experience, monthly income, and workload.Results. Principal component extraction with varimax rotation identified 3 factor themes accounting for 49.0% of the total variance: tolerant attitudes toward debt (23.5%); contemplation and knowledge about loans (14.3%); and fear of debt (11.2%). Tolerant attitudes toward debt were higher if students were white or if they had had past loan experience.Conclusion. These 3 themes in students’ attitudes toward debt were consistent with those identified in previous research. Pharmacy schools should consider providing a structured financial education to improve student management of debt.     

Pharmacy Students’ Attitudes Toward Reporting Serious Adverse Drug Events

Objectives. To determine pharmacy students’ attitude toward and knowledge of reporting serious adverse drug events (ADEs) to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Method. A 58-item survey questionnaire constructed to measure respondents’ intention to report ADEs (3 items), attitude toward reporting ADEs (20 items), knowledge of ADE reporting (9 items), and demographic data was administered to all third-year (final-year) pharmacy students at the Appalachian College of Pharmacy.Results. The majority of the 58 students who responded (91% response rate) intended (84%) and planned (85.3%) to report serious ADEs when they encounter them. Most respondents had favorable attitudes toward reporting serious ADEs to the FDA; respondents believed that reporting serious ADEs was valuable (5.6 ± 1.5, mean ± SD), good (3.0 ± 1.7), and beneficial (5.7 ± 1.5). Many students also believed that ADE reporting resulted in increased risk of malpractice, compromised relationships with physicians, broken trust with patients, disruption of the normal workflow, and was time consuming. Many students had inadequate knowledge on reporting ADEs.Conclusion. Although pharmacy students had strong intentions and favorable attitudes toward ADE reporting, they had inadequate knowledge of how to report serious ADEs.     

Effect of Dispositional Traits on Pharmacy Students�� Attitude Toward Cheating

Objective

To explore the relation between dispositional traits and pharmacy students’ attitudes toward cheating in a university setting.

Methods

A questionnaire was administered primarily to pharmacy students at a comprehensive university in the southeastern United States to assess self-esteem, self-efficacy, idealism, relativism, student attitudes toward cheating, tolerance for peer cheating, detachment from the university, Machiavellian behavior, and demographic information.

Results

Gender, degree of idealism, relativism, and Machiavellian traits were found to influence student attitudes toward cheating, while age, grade-point average (GPA), race, income, and marital status did not.

Conclusions

Considered collectively, these data support the study model prediction that the major determinants of student attitudes toward cheating are based on the degree of idealism and relativism evident in the students’ dispositional trait. Idealism was found to be inversely related to the likelihood of a student engaging in cheating or tolerating peer cheating.     

An Elective Psychiatric Course to Reduce Pharmacy Students�� Social Distance Toward People With Severe Mental Illness

Objective

To determine whether an elective course on mental health could reduce pharmacy students’ social distance toward people with severe mental illness.

Design

Course activities included assigned readings, class discussions, student presentations, review of video and other media for examples of social distance, presentations by patients with mental illness, and visits to hospitalized patients in a variety of psychiatric settings.

Assessment

The Social Distance Scale (SDS) was administered at the beginning and end of the semester to students enrolled in the elective and to a comparator group of students not enrolled in the course. Pharmacy students who did not complete the elective had significantly higher SDS scores than students who completed the elective (18.7 vs. 15.6, p < 0.001). Students enrolled in the course had lower precourse SDS scores, were more likely than their peers to have a personal association with mental illness, and had a decrease in precourse to postcourse scores.

Conclusion

A course designed to reduce stigma towards the mentally ill can reduce pharmacy students'' social distance.