• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.299-308
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• 2013

According to the changed '2+4'-year pharmacy school curriculum in Korea, pharmacy preceptors play a highly crucial role in educating student pharmacists through practice-based learning. Whether the new curriculum in a Korean pharmacy school will become firmly established or not depends on the competency of a preceptor. Before the preceptors with high competencies are anticipated, the effective education programs for them should be provided. However, there have been little studies regarding the competencies of pharmacy preceptors in Korea. This study was to analyze the degree of differences between importance and performance of preceptors' competencies. The self-reported questionnaire was utilized to collect data from pharmacists in the preceptor education program of a university. Total 122 pharmacists participated in the program, and 78 responded to the survey questionnaires. The average of importance for overall evaluation items was 4.32 whereas that of performance for them was 3.51 by using a 5-point Likert scale. The evaluation items with relatively marked differences between importance and performance were 'sufficient time allowance for students', 'teaching research results regarding newly approved drugs', 'clear understanding of goals and learning contents about pharmacy practice experiences', and 'plan for systemic experience educations'. Further follow-up researches on changes of the differences in importance- performance of preceptors' competencies after precepting student pharmacists should be implemented. Furthermore, the effective and appropriate methods for the preceptor education programs based on the follow-up studies should be developed to reduce the difference between importance and performance.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.238-245
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• 2015

Background: Pharmacy schools newly adopted a 6-year program strengthening clinical knowledge since 2011 in Korea. The clinical training under the guidance of preceptors at hospital sites is a requisite for pharmacy students during the last year of undergraduate course. It has been rarely studied on the hospital pharmacists' perspective regarding being a preceptor or teaching pharmacy students. Objectives: This study aimed to examine the hospital pharmacists' intention toward student training and to identify the relevant factors among the individual pharmacists' characteristics and working environment within the theoretical frame of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Method: A mail-survey was conducted for pharmacists working in tertiary hospitals in Seoul and Incheon. The survey questionnaire consisting of 131 questions with a 5-likert scale was developed for investigating pharmacists' attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and the intention to teach pharmacy students as well as other demographic variables. To estimate the construct validity of components, factor analysis was conducted and Cronbach's alpha was calculated to estimate the reliability of the observed variables. Statistical analyses of one-way variance analysis and multiple regression analysis were performed using SPSS 18.0. Results: The survey response rate was 53% (116/210) and the three constructs of attitude (r = .519), subjective norm (r = .233) and perceived control (r = .392) have appropriate correlations with the intention, proving the appropriateness of using the TPB model. Pharmacists working in inpatient (mean = 3.45) and outpatient clinics (mean = 3.34) generally showed positive intention for teaching. The attitude (${\beta}=.432$, p < 0.01) and perceived control (${\beta}=.270$, p < .01) constructs were significant predictors of the intention. Both age (r = 0.246, p = 0.017) and length of career (r = 0.310, p = 0.002) were positively related with the perceived control. Conclusion: Hospital pharmacists showed generally positive intention to provide student training in spite of the concern on their limited perceived behavioral control. Future research to find the actual barriers pharmacists faced in educating students need to be conducted.