Lee Tiffany A, Sundly Amit, Coombs Stephen D, Galway Gerald J
School of Pharmacy, Memorial University, St. John's, NL, Canada.
Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, St. John's, NL, Canada.
PLoS One. 2025 Jan 22;20(1):e0316395. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0316395. eCollection 2025.
Several international studies have investigated academic decision-making in higher education, but there is limited research on students' choice to study pharmacy in the Canadian context. While there is some variation across jurisdictions, decisions to enroll in a particular degree program fall into several decision-making domains (e.g., personal, family, institutional, social, and economic). These findings have been theorized in various ways, for example, through social cognitive theory and social reproduction theory. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the personal, family, institutional, social, and economic factors that underpin student decisions to pursue the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree at Atlantic Canadian Universities and to explore barriers to pursuing a pharmacy degree. The proposed study uses an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design consisting of a quantitative survey followed by qualitative interviews. All entry-to-practice PharmD students and graduates in Atlantic Canada are eligible to participate. The survey consists of several Likert scale questions associated with five decision-making domains, as well as several socio-demographic questions. Descriptive statistics and frequency counts will be used to describe the data; differences across decision-making domains, by gender and other demographic groupings, will be analyzed using inferential statistics. Semi-structured interviews with a sample of 12 to 15 participants will be conducted to further understand and explain the quantitative results. We will engage in thematic analysis of qualitative data. The findings of this research will provide insight into the decision-making patterns and socio-demographic characteristics of students who have chosen to pursue a PharmD. Important information will be gathered to inform health professional education and workforce planning, which we believe will contribute to improving healthcare resource capacity and patient outcomes in Atlantic Canada. The results of this project will also inform future recruitment strategies and admission criteria and support educators in the secondary school system in providing evidence-informed career counselling advice for students interested in pursuing a degree in pharmacy. The findings of this study may also be useful to educational leaders and policymakers.
几项国际研究调查了高等教育中的学术决策，但在加拿大背景下，关于学生选择攻读药学专业的研究有限。尽管不同司法管辖区存在一些差异，但决定攻读特定学位课程的决策可分为几个决策领域（例如个人、家庭、机构、社会和经济领域）。这些研究结果已通过各种方式进行了理论化，例如通过社会认知理论和社会再生产理论。本研究的目的是更好地了解支撑加拿大大西洋地区大学学生攻读药学博士（PharmD）学位决策的个人、家庭、机构、社会和经济因素，并探索攻读药学学位的障碍。拟议的研究采用解释性序列混合方法设计，包括定量调查，随后进行定性访谈。加拿大大西洋地区所有进入实践阶段的药学博士学生和毕业生都有资格参与。该调查包括与五个决策领域相关的几个李克特量表问题，以及几个社会人口统计学问题。描述性统计和频数计数将用于描述数据；将使用推断统计分析不同决策领域、按性别和其他人口分组的差异。将对12至15名参与者进行半结构化访谈，以进一步理解和解释定量结果。我们将对定性数据进行主题分析。本研究的结果将深入了解选择攻读药学博士学位的学生的决策模式和社会人口特征。将收集重要信息，为卫生专业教育和劳动力规划提供参考，我们相信这将有助于提高加拿大大西洋地区的医疗资源能力和患者治疗效果。该项目的结果还将为未来的招生策略和录取标准提供参考，并支持中学系统的教育工作者为有兴趣攻读药学学位的学生提供基于证据的职业咨询建议。本研究的结果可能对教育领导者和政策制定者也有用。
