Education Satisfaction among Pharmacy Graduates in Sweden

Abstract

Education satisfaction is considered important for development of a professional identity and to increase learning. The aim was to investigate and compare education satisfaction over time among pharmacists who have graduated from the pharmacy programs at Umeå University, Sweden. Data concerning education satisfaction were collected using an alumni survey of pharmacists who graduated between 2015 and 2018. This was compared with pharmacists graduating between 2006 and 2014. The majority of the pharmacy graduates were very satisfied with their education (96%) and thought that the programs gave them a clear professional identity (92%). No differences in education satisfaction between graduation years 2015 and 2018 and 2006 and 2014 were found. A majority of the graduates considered that the knowledge and skills acquired during their education were useful in their present job (83%). Of the graduates who thought that the studies gave them a clear professional identity, a higher proportion were satisfied with their job (p < 0.001) and thought that their work duties reflected their studies (p = 0.005). Exploring education satisfaction may help educators to further develop the education and to better prepare the students for their professional working life.

Experience with pharmacy academic programmes and career aspirations of pharmacy students and young pharmacists-an international cross-sectional study

“…Results showed that circa 60% of the research participants had satisfactory experiences with their academic programmes. These results are similar to the results and findings of two previous studies in Jordan and Sweden [ 26 , 27 ]. This could be viewed as a disappointing low outcome for a regulated healthcare profession.…”

Ranking of Curricular Content by Pharmacy Students and Community Pharmacists

“…In Sweden, pharmacy graduates of one university were very satisfied with their program and largely felt the knowledge and skills acquired were useful in their present position (with most in community pharmacy) [ 15 ]. A majority felt their opinions as students were considered important to the faculty.…”

From drug-oriented curriculum to patient-oriented curriculum in Chile: Alumni satisfaction as a quality indicator for a pharmacy programme

“…Based on these concepts, we agree with the postulate that alumni satisfaction represent a reliable, outcome-based indicator of the quality of a programme (Harvey & Langley, 1995;Jennings, 1989), these being the indicators necessary for quality assurance of pharmacy education (FIP, 2014). Interestingly, a study evaluating education satisfaction in two cohorts of pharmacy graduates in Sweden was recently published (Gustafsson et al, 2021); The authors used a ten-question survey, and the Likert-type scales data was dichotomised in the statistical analysis. As the…”

“…In health careers and particularly in pharmacy, items related to satisfaction of alumni with programmes have been part of job satisfaction surveys (Gustafsson et al, 2018;Jalal et al, 2018;Joyner et al, 2009). Recently, Gustafsson and authors published the results of a brief survey on education satisfaction among pharmacy graduates in Sweden (Gustafsson et al, 2021). However, as far as we know, validated instruments addressed specifically to assess alumni satisfaction with the pharmacy programme are absent in the literature.…”