Nurturing professionalism in student pharmacists: elevating future pharmacy practice 

By: Cherie Lucas, PhD, BPharm, Grad Cert Edu Stud (Higher Educ), MPS and Dr Arcelio Benetoli, BPharm, MSc, PhD

How is Professionalism Defined?

Professionalism is a complex and multifaceted construct. Many definitions in the literature embody what this entails. Values of professionalism in pharmacy include altruism and core norms, such as  self-reflection, along with other attributes, behaviors, ethical conduct, and standards that pharmacists must epitomize daily.¹ This extends beyond the technical expertise required and demonstrates what is necessary to do the job well.

Core attributes including empathy, integrity, appropriate communication, accountability, and a commitment to reflective practice^{2, 3}, and lifelong learning are essential. Professionalism in pharmacy is not confined to face-to-face interactions but extends to encompass virtual public behaviors, including those on social media platforms.⁴ 

Teaching student pharmacists how to be professional can be a complex task, which may include: 

• Ensuring pharmacy students are equipped with professional skills to understand the pillars underpinning this construct.
• Providing a platform for communication exercises involving ethical situations which may involve interprofessional collaboration. This could include showcasing exemplary role plays between pharmacists, patients, and other healthcare professionals and problem-solving  ethical dilemmas. 
• Choosing classroom activities that introduce the attitudes and behaviors expected from pharmacists. 

For this blog post, we would like to highlight the pillars’ consensus underpinning professionalism and provide examples of how these pillars affect communication and/or health outcomes.

Pillars of Professionalism	Explanation and Example	Teaching Strategies
Pillar 1: Ethical Conduct	Pharmacists are expected to uphold high ethical standards and demonstrate integrity by prioritizing the patient’s immediate and long-term needs and well-being over any personal or financial interests. Pharmacists often need to navigate complex situations where ethical decisions impact patient care.	Pharmacist professional bodies outline specific Codes of Conduct.  Illustrate case-by-case scenarios using the Code of Conduct as guidelines.
Pillar 2: Clinical Competence	Pharmacists are required to make informed clinical decisions daily. Therefore, their clinical knowledge and evidence-based practice should be continually scrutinized and updated.	Discuss Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and Reflective Practice as cornerstones of pharmacy and how they require revalidation for continued registration.
Pillar 3: Communication Skills	Effective communication skills are essential for relaying information and ensuring that the patient understands critical instructions, the importance of adherence, monitoring requirements, interactions, and health outcomes. Developing communication skills to convey information in both technical (for interprofessional communication) and layman’s terms (for patient understanding) is also essential.	Explain how to foster collaborative relationships with other healthcare professionals and expand our professional role in interprofessional teams.
Pillar 4: Reflecting on their practice 2, 3 and developing a Lifelong learning strategy	It is pivotal for pharmacists to critique and reflect on current practice and stay abreast with updates in treatment options, the latest research, technologies, policies, guidelines, standards, and practices to provide optimal patient care. With evolving scopes of practice for pharmacists, they must be knowledgeable about the latest advancements. This ensures they can deliver comprehensive care and effectively collaborate with other healthcare professionals to achieve positive patient outcomes.	Ask students to reflect on how this aligns with undertaking relevant CPD and engaging with the profession via attendance at conferences, webinars, or online events.

Measuring Levels of Professionalism 

So, how does one know if they are achieving professionalism skills? This question is difficult to answer, given that professionalism is a multidimensional construct. However, to shed some light on this, a systematic review identified four instruments that have been applied to measure professionalism in pharmacy students and in pharmacy settings.⁵

1. The Behavioral Professionalism Assessment instrument (BPAI)
2. Lerkiatbundit’s instrument,
3. The Pharmacy Professionalism Instrument (PPI), and
4. The Professionalism Assessment Tool (PAT).

All of these instruments were tested with pharmacy students as a sample population and were developed since 2000. They all involve a self-reported mechanism with self-reports aligned to an identified rating scale. Any one may be a valuable measure of professionalism for pharmacy students. 

How do your Faculty and students enhance their professionalism and what tools or strategies are utilized to assess measures of success? 

References 

1. Chadha A, Charrois TL, Hall J. Moving beyond professionalism: Pharmacy students understanding of professionalism and professional identity. Currents in pharmacy teaching and learning. 2022;14(8):972-981.

2. Tsingos C, Bosnic-Anticevich S, Smith L. Reflective practice and its implications for pharmacy education. Am J Pharm Educ. 2014;78(1):18.

3. Tsingos C. Reflective practice: Learning from experience. Journal of pharmacy practice and research. 2013;43(3):249-250.

4. Benetoli A, Chen TF, Schaefer M, Chaar B, Aslani P. Pharmacists’ perceptions of professionalism on social networking sites. Res Social Adm Pharm. 2017;13(3):575-588.

5. Dubbai H, Adelstein B-A, Taylor S, Shulruf B. Definition of professionalism and tools for assessing professionalism in pharmacy practice: a systematic review. Journal of educational evaluation for health professions. 2019;16:22-12.

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Author Bios: 

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Pulses is a scholarly blog supported by a team of pharmacy education scholars.