A description and opinions of a longitudinal book club for comprehensive pharmacy faculty development

Abstract

IntroductionThe objectives of this study were to implement a faculty development book club centering on pharmacy education and to evaluate faculty opinions of the process. MethodsA year-long pharmacy faculty development book club was conducted. Monthly meetings explored a pharmacy education text. Discussions centered on reflective questions submitted by chapter facilitators. Participants completed pre- and post-surveys regarding attitudes and opinions of faculty development utilizing a book club format. The Kruskal-Wallis, Dunn's multiple comparisons, Mann-Whitney, and Wilcoxon tests were used to analyze results. ResultsOf 48 faculty, 26 and 19 responded to the pre- and post-surveys, respectively; 73% agreed they would like a faculty development book club on the pre-survey, while 86.3% of participants were satisfied or highly satisfied with the book club on the post-survey. On the pre-survey, females and clinical faculty felt they would be more engaged in the book club than in more traditional development programs; the same groups indicated more engagement on the post-survey. Males indicated greater improvement in teaching abilities than females as a result of the book club. Of paired pre- and post-surveys, 12 respondents more strongly agreed that they were able to describe characteristics of a student-centered approach to teaching after the book club. ConclusionsFaculty found a comprehensive book club to be an enjoyable and engaging way of developing skills and knowledge as a pharmacy academician. This alternative delivery method for faculty development programming can be replicated by other institutions. Further study is needed to evaluate long-term outcomes.