(7) “Buzz Sessions” Introducing First Year Pharmacy Students to Multiple Practice Settings

Objective : Evaluate the impact of a “buzz session” pharmacist panel activity on first-year pharmacy (P1) student understanding of and interest in diverse career practice settings.

Methods: P1 students, as part of a required introduction to pharmacy course, completed the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Career Pathways Evaluation Program prior to attending two 75 minute sessions where they rotated through pairs of practicing pharmacists from 15 different practice settings. Each 10 minute session included an “elevator speech” by the panelist regarding their practice and interactive question and answers. Students completed a pre-post survey ranking their understanding of and interest in each practice setting on a scale of 1-10 along with a reflection writing assignment on the impact of the panel and APhA Career Pathways Evaluation Program. Paired two-tailed t-tests were used for the pre-post survey analysis. Qualitative thematic analysis was used for the reflection assignment.

Results: A total of 46 of 50 P1 students consented to participate in the analysis. Student understanding significantly increased for each practice setting (p <.01). Change in student interest in each practice setting varied. There was a significant increase in interest in one practice setting and a significant decrease in interest in one practice setting. The remainder had insignificant increases or decreases in interest. Thematic analysis of the reflection assignment identified patient-related interaction (direct care, counseling) and personal wellbeing (schedule, workload, flexibility) as key factors impacting P1 student practice setting interest.

Conclusions: Early exposure to different practice settings through the APhA Career Pathways Evaluation Program and an interactive pharmacist panel significantly increased students understanding of different practice settings while not impacting their interests in the different settings.