Shaping pharmacy studentsʼ business and management aptitude and attitude

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• 作者：Roderick A. Slavcev ; PhD ; MBA ; MRSB ; CBiol^a ; ^{slavcev@uwaterloo.ca" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Nancy M. Waite ; BScPhm ; PharmD^a ; Brad Jennings ; BA ; BEd ; MEd^b
• 关键词：Business program ; Pharmacy curriculum ; Strategic management ; Business skills ; Advisory committee
• 刊名：Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：September-October 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：8
• 期：5
• 页码：672-680
• 全文大小：258 K

文摘

Evolving practice requirements, coupled with revised pharmacy graduate competencies, have pharmacy schools considering how best to create or adapt their business curricula to graduate students with relevant skills and attitudes to support them as practice leaders and innovators.

Educational activity

Based on recommendations from an advisory group of pharmacy business professionals, a business program was designed and delivered at a new pharmacy school to meet the business, strategic management, leadership, and entrepreneurial training needs of graduating pharmacists. The program consists of a mandatory business course with an incentivized competition and other core courses with business components, as well as elective courses in pharmacy-related business topics, extracurricular and incentivized business-related activities, and experiential-learning opportunities.

Critical analysis

The schoolʼs business curriculum has many components, but three in particular (the mandatory business course, an investment club and a highly incentivized competition) highlight innovative approaches that foster the application of more complex business and leadership skills. Each component draws upon lower-order foundational skills taught earlier in the program and requires students to apply their prior learning in real-world contexts with increasing complexity and responsibility.

Conclusions

To flourish in their profession pharmacy students need to be leaders and innovators, not followers. A pharmacy business curriculum was designed and delivered as part of a new pharmacy schoolʼs curriculum that could be piloted or adapted by other colleges and faculties of pharmacy. The use of external expertise to support both development and delivery of the curriculum has positively impacted student learning and attitudes, laying the foundation for the curriculumʼs ongoing success.