Longitudinal evaluation of student professionalism throughout the professional didactic curriculum of a pharmacy program

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to evaluate longitudinal changes in professionalism of pharmacy students across the curriculum using a validated instrument that minimizes ceiling effect. Methods: The Professionalism Assessment Tool (PAT) was administered to first, second, and third year PharmD students twice throughout the first and second professional year (P1 and P2) and three times throughout the third professional year (P3). Results: Longitudinal increases in all five domains of professionalism of the PAT were noted as students progressed through each year of the didactic curriculum. Most demographic categories (sex, age, employment in a pharmacy, and number of other degrees held) of respondents did not affect self-assessment results. Two demographic categories, the number of student organizations and age group, had statistically significant impact on self-reported professionalism. Conclusions: This pilot study showed longitudinal improvement in student self-assessment of professionalism over the course of the didactic curriculum at one school. Self-assessment of pharmacy student professionalism increased over the course of the didactic curriculum and was not affected by most demographics.