Assessment of professionalism among pharmacy students: A pilot study exploring professionalism tenets and associated factors

Abstract

Background: Enhancing student pharmacist professionalism has gained much attention in pharmacy education. This study aimed to assess the professionalism of professional year students in a private pharmacy school in Lebanon and identify significant factors. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using the validated pharmacy professionalism instrument (PPI) applied to students of the three professional years of pharmacy study. A stratification by professional year was performed to compare groups and subgroups and identify significant associations. Results: The students reported a high overall professionalism score (78.65±10.36) and good scores for the six tenets of professionalism, including excellence (21.79±3.18), respect (17.47±2.66), altruism (12.74±2.00), duty (9.32±1.38), accountability (8.62±1.55), and integrity (8.89±1.51). There was no significant improvement in overall professionalism and tenets scores across the professional years, nor was there a significant change in demographics. However, working on a part-time basis was significantly associated with lower overall professionalism (beta=-2.674), respect (beta=-0.553), altruism (beta=0.523), duty (beta=-0.295), and accountability scores (beta=-0.316). Conclusion: The study revealed high overall baseline professionalism and tenets scores among all students with no significant improvements from one year to the other. Further studies that follow cohorts of students up across the curriculum are necessary for individual comparisons.