Comparing perceptions of professionalism by pharmacy students, faculty, and staff during didactic education

Introduction: The objectives were to describe pharmacy students' perceptions of professionalism and to compare students and faculty/staff perceptions of professionalism during the didactic years at Touro University California College of Pharmacy in California (TUC COP). Methods: A two-part online survey was administered to the TUC COP faculty/staff and first-year (P1) and second-professional year (P2) students in May 2016. The first part of the survey collected demographic information, assessment of faculty/staff and students' overall opinions on behavior and conduct displayed by P1 and P2 students, students' responses about the average of missed lectures per month, and the average number of days of late arrival to lecture per week. The second part assessed professionalism perceptions responses to 20 scenarios using a 4-point Likert rating. Results: The study included 37 (88.4%) faculty/staff and 181 (96.4%) P1 and P2 students, for a 98% response rate. Of the faculty/staff, 59.5% perceived the students' overall behaviors and conduct as acceptable whereas 35.3% of students perceived the overall behavior of P1 and P2 students as acceptable, with the majority of students self-reporting missing on average fewer than five lectures per month (65.2%) and arriving late to lecture fewer than one day each week (71.8%). There were statistically significant differences between faculty/staff and students' responses in 9 of the 20 scenarios. Conclusions: Differences in responses between faculty/staff and students regarding what is considered professional suggest that there is a gap in professionalism perceptions that should be addressed during didactic years.