Table 3 Thematic analysis of Post-Year 1 interviews
Themes and Description | Sample interview excerpts |
|---|---|
Understand the need for strong pharmacological knowledge in health advocacy | |
The interviewees commonly believed that extensive pharmacological knowledge is important for health advocates. They recognised that pharmacists’ responsibilities include dispensing and counselling on drug use and lifestyle changes. | “I think pharmacists naturally do play a role in actually promoting to the public about [the] upkeeping of health… our role is like medication experts…” Interviewee 2 “So what roles [do] pharmacists play… I think the first important thing for health advocacy is basically the appropriate use of medications. Teach [patients] or educate them on how to appropriately use that medication.” Interviewee 5 |
Apprehension towards pharmacists’ roles in improving health beyond the individual level towards the community level | |
The interviewees voiced reservations about their abilities to contribute to health advocacy on a macro level. Majority did not recognise pharmacists’ role in managing upstream social determinants of health as they felt that pharmacists had limited influence on the community and systems levels. This plausibly led to their belief that pharmacists’ role in health advocacy is limited to the individual level in direct patient care settings. However, one interviewee acknowledged that the curriculum was effective in empowering students to advocate for health beyond the individual level. | “I think my role next time will be more towards maintaining health, not so much on prevention. And I think the role is not very big. In the sense that I think, perhaps advertisements online have a larger reach and impact than what pharmacists are telling the patient…” Interviewee 3 “Some of us may feel that pharmacist[s] may not play such an important role in the healthcare setting, especially in health advocacy. So, with this new curriculum rolled out, in Year 1, you are already introduced [to] how important [your role as a pharmacist is] and what kind of role you play, and then we can build on that in the future.” Interviewee 2 |
Desire for more experiential learning opportunities | |
The interviewees found the idea of experiential learning beneficial and showed interest in undertaking more opportunities to apply theoretical knowledge into practice to enhance their understanding of key concepts and skills. | “I think that [experiential learning] helps quite a lot because they [put] our skills to actual use, like going out [to] the field and talking to actual patients.” Interviewee 1 “If we are able to do [virtual befriending sessions with] more people in the future, I think that's quite inspiring for me, that's why I think it really excites me to be learning more about health advocacy and actually doing more of these—getting more experience.” Interviewee 2 “[With regards to how the curriculum can be further improved] More community visits… Maybe if things were in real-life [in contrast to virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic], maybe that will be a better learning experience for all students.” Interviewee 4 |
Varying opinions on the incorporation of health advocacy concepts in the curriculum | |
The interviewees expressed conflicting sentiments about the curriculum’s effectiveness in teaching health advocacy. Some desired health advocacy concepts to be taught more explicitly. As internalising health advocacy does not occur intuitively for students, it should be fostered through clearer emphasis in the curriculum. | “Maybe if [the professors] explicitly highlight [health advocacy] first, and then, tell us what is the importance of health advocacy… [and] cover it like an actual lesson itself so that we have better awareness of health advocacy.” Interviewee 1 “[The curriculum] can have more case studies in terms of real-life examples on how pharmacists may be able to contribute to health advocacy.” Interviewee 5 |
Contrarily, some interviewees felt that the curriculum was already effective in inculcating health advocacy and displayed enhanced awareness of it. | “From what we've covered in Year 1, I think they're trying to impress on us that it's not just about providing healthcare but also managing health, just to prevent people from even being in the state to need healthcare services.” Interviewee 2 “If you make the drug cheaper here in a way, then you tend to promote health because patients are able to purchase this drug and utilise it.” Interviewee 4 |