(368) Pitt Pharmacy Pilot Program to Enhance Middle School Students’ Knowledge of Pharmacy

Objective : To evaluate the impact of a pilot middle school focused pharmacy educational program on student understanding and perception of the profession of pharmacy.

Methods: Students attended a 4 hour session where they participated in activities including a compounding lab, virtual problem based learning scenario, high fidelity human case simulation, molecule docking simulation, and tour of the school and wet lab. Two surveys were given to all students at the pilot middle school program prior to activities and then again at the conclusion of the morning. Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to assess the difference between the pre and post survey scores. The first survey focused on knowledge of a pharmacist’s education and career opportunities. The second survey was an evaluation of the activities completed throughout the morning.

Results: All six pilot students ranging from 11-14 years old completed the pre and post survey. In the first survey there was a statistically significant increase in student’s understanding of what a pharmacist does (p <.03). There was also an increase in their interest in becoming a pharmacist (p <.06). Five of the six students (83.3% response rate) completed the second survey rating each activity they participated in. Using a Likert Scale of 0-5 (0 being extremely disliked and 5 being extremely liked), 100% of the respondents gave the compounding lab a 5. Additionally, their favorite activity was compounding lab (60%).

Conclusions: Results show that early immersion into the profession of pharmacy is of interest to middle school students and a larger program should be conducted.