Pharmacy students' attitudes and perceptions toward pharmacogenomics education.

PURPOSE

To evaluate final-year pharmacy students' perceptions toward pharmacogenomics education, their attitudes on its clinical relevance, and their readiness to use such knowledge in practice.

METHODS

A 19-question survey was developed and modified from prior studies and was pretested on a small group of pharmacogenomics faculty and pharmacy students. The final survey was administered to 978 final-year pharmacy students in 8 school/colleges of pharmacy in New York and New Jersey between January and May 2017. The survey targeted 3 main themes: perceptions toward pharmacogenomics education, attitudes toward the clinical relevance of this education, and the students' readiness to use knowledge of pharmacogenomics in practice.

RESULTS

With a 35% response rate, the majority (81%) of the 339 student participants believed that pharmacogenomics was a useful clinical tool for pharmacists, yet only 40% felt that it had been a relevant part of their training. Almost half (46%) received only 1-3 lectures on pharmacogenomics and the majority were not ready to use it in practice. Survey results pointed toward practice-based trainings such as pharmacogenomics rotations as the most helpful in preparing students for practice.

CONCLUSIONS

Final-year student pharmacists reported varying exposure to pharmacogenomics content in their pharmacy training and had positive attitudes toward the clinical relevance of the discipline, yet they expressed low confidence in their readiness to use this information in practice.