Assessing Pharmacy Student’s and Alumni’s Perceived Benefit of 4th Year Professional Development Activities Through an Online Survey

Abstract

Specific Aims: Assess the perceived benefit of professional development activities provided to 4th year pharmacy students through a survey of alumni. Subjects: University of Arizona College of Pharmacy alumni from the class of 2013 through 2017. Methods: An email sent to all email addresses that were listed in the listserv invited alumni from the class of 2013 through 2017 to participate in the survey. The survey collected information on which events the alumni attended during their 4th year of pharmacy school and gauged how beneficial the respondents found the events that they participated in. Main Results: The survey was completed by a total of 100 alumni; 20 from the class of 2013 (60% female), 16 from the class of 2014 (75% female), 19 from the class of 2015 (68% female), 20 from the class of 2016 (60% female), and 25 from the class of 2017 (56% female). Respondents reported similar attendance for the 4 th year meetings (P4 meetings) (61.8%), the mock interview session (60%), and the residency/preceptor showcase (60%.) 55% of respondents reported attending career day. The following percentage of respondents strongly agree or agree that they found the events beneficial as described in the survey items: 77.5% for the P4 meetings, 78% for the mock interviews, 58.7% for the residency/preceptor showcase, and 65.1% for career day. Conclusions: The P4 meetings, mock interviews, residency/preceptor showcase and career day appear to have been beneficial for over 50% of the respondents that reported attendance of these events.