Forces driving change in pharmacy education: Opportunities to take academic, social, technological, economic, and political into the future

Abstract

In pharmacy education, we are experiencing the “new normal” after an “inflection point” along with a host of other overused phrases. Yet, without doubt, there is pressing need to reconsider what was once standard operating procedure. When an inflection point is viewed as opportunity, it sparks a strategic boom. Indeed, the confluence of threats and opportunities caused—or revealed—by the COVID‐19 pandemic is setting the stage for an acceleration of change in professional education. In this paper, we investigate the motivations and approaches to accelerate needed change in pharmacy education. Though prompted by the demand for rapid restructuring in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic, these ideas transcend any one driver. We argue that now is the time to disrupt current practices through innovation leading to new educational models and present sample solutions. We consider academic, social, technological, economic, and political (ASTEP) forces driving the imperative to educational change.

A Scoping Review of Educator Proficiency Interventions in Pharmacy Education Illustrated by an Interdisciplinary Model Integrating Pedagogical Theories into Practice

“…We hypothesized that educator teaching pro-ficiency forms a key element and is developed through interdisciplinary cooperation in many reported interventions. Prior studies did report moot suggestions and unmeasured evidence of interprofessional collaboration within faculties [20,21], yet our hypothesis was not confirmed since only a few detected interventions that involved educational scientist support for the pedagogical development at any stage of the process [10,13,16]. Institutional awareness of interdisciplinary cooperation benefits should be raised and more aptly documented.…”

“…Interprofessional communication barriers seem to be a prevailing factor in the course of academic progress [20]. Yet, we propose, collaboration and mutual respect between experts of different sciences seem to be beneficial for sustainable quality improvements [20,21,40]. Important implications arise from the complexity of the curriculum, which integrates the full (formal, informal and hidden) curriculum.…”

Addressing inequities in pharmaceutical education with an International Pharmaceutical Federation toolkit

“…Financial inequities, which are one of the resourcerelated inequities, are a major concern reported in many LMICs, especially with regard to access to higher education. Higher education institutions face reduced state or government funding considering budget reallocations afflicting many countries, negatively affecting the quality of pharmaceutical education (Rhoney et al, 2021). Due to a lack of funding, needsbased pharmaceutical education is also poorly implemented.…”

Pharmacy undergraduate programs: Development of an adaptive curriculum for student success

“…Pharmacy school admission rates at universities in the United States seem to have plateaued, while the application rates seem to oscillate from high to low from year to year and the number of accredited schools continues to rise [ [1] , [2] , [3] ]. The fluctuation of potential applicants has produced a pool of students who appear competitive on paper, but upon entering a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program may struggle with course work, course load, and pharmacologic topics in their first year studies [ [4] , [5] , [6] ].…”

“…As such, the undergraduate pharmacy programs must also evolve beyond the traditional science curriculum [ 11 ]. Pharmacists have expanded into roles as educators, managers, mentors, business/product developers, leaders, researchers, and policy experts [ 1 , 12 , 13 ]. The change in role has been dictated on the location of their practice, experience, competencies, interest, and changes in the job market.…”