(222) Doctor of Pharmacy Students’ Preferences for The Attributes of Pharmacoeconomics Workshop: A Discrete Choice Experiment

Objective : To investigate the preferences of third-year Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students for various attributes of a Pharmacoeconomics Workshop course.

Methods: A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted upon course completion. Twelve choice tasks were presented, differing in six course attributes: number of instructors, class hours, instructional approach, in-class group work, individual homework exercises, and the presence of a final exam. These attributes and levels were reflective of the current Pharmacoeconomics Workshop course offered at Harrison College of Pharmacy, Auburn University. We collected the data from 132 third-year PharmD students. We used an error-component logit model to analyze the choice data.

Results: Fifty students constituted the analytical sample. The majority of these students were female (69.39%). The results indicated a preference towards one instructor over three instructors per day (coefficient: -0.327, p=.015, 95% CI: [-0.592; -0.062]), four-hour class over eight-hour (coefficient: -0.665, p<.001, 95% CI: [-0.959; -0.370]) or six-hour class per day (coefficient: -0.246, p=.070, 95% CI: [-0.512; -0.020]), and one in-class group work over four in-class group work activities (coefficient: -0.469, p=.003, 95% CI: [-0.778; -0.161]) or “no in-class group work” per day (coefficient: -0.307, p=.064, 95% CI: [-0.632; -0.018]). A significant preference for “no final exam” was noted (coefficient: 0.548, p<.001, 95% CI [0.349; 0.748]). Neither hybrid/online instructional methods (compared to an in-person approach) nor the frequency of individual homework (compared to the absence of homework) significantly influenced preferences.

Conclusions: PharmD students preferred the Pharmacoeconomics Workshop with one instructor per day, a four-hour class per day, one in-class group work per day, and the omission of the final exam. We can consider these students’ preferences when we redesign the Pharmacoeconomics Workshop course.