RESEARCH ARTICLE: Final year pharmacy students’ opinions on teamwork: A questionnaire-based study from a UK School of Pharmacy
Keywords:
Pharmacy, Undergraduate Students, Teamwork, ViewsAbstract
Introduction: The study aimed to investigate Queen's University Belfast (QUB) pharmacy students’ opinions about teamwork within the degree programme including inter-professional activities they have completed. This is pertinent given accrediting (regulator) organisation requirements about team-based learning and engagement in multidisciplinary teams.
Methods: Following ethical approval, all final year pharmacy students except the research student were invited to participate in this single institution study (n=95). Data were collected via a self-completed, pre-piloted, questionnaire (largely closed-style questions and non-identifiable data requested). Data analysis generated descriptive statistics with tests such as the Mann Whitney U-Test employed for inferential statistical analysis.
Results: The response rate was 96.8% (92/95). Most pharmacy students respondents (81.5%, n=75/92) found teamwork valuable and 76.7% (69/90) deemed it essential to ensure they became safe and effective pharmacists. Males wanted more teamwork in comparison to females (p=0.02). Only 53.8% (49/91) liked peer evaluation. Formative activities (particularly one with medical students about prescribing and dispensing) were more popular than summatively assessed activities.
Conclusion: While opinions about teamwork were positive, more work is required on peer evaluation (given its importance for professional development) and summative team-based assessment.
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