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Factors relating to academic success in the first semester of the bachelor of pharmacy degree at NMMU

- Nagel, Timothy Shaun

Authors: Nagel, Timothy Shaun
Date: 2017
Subjects: Pharmacy -- Study and teaching , College students -- South Africa Academic achievement
Language: English
Type: Thesis , Masters , MPharm
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/14201 , vital:27446
Description: Student throughput rates and academic achievement at universities are a concern at a national level in South Africa. Statistics have shown that on average, only ±17% of students who enrolled at a university, managed to graduate. The aim of the study was to determine the factors pertaining to student achievement and success in the first semester of the first year Bachelor of Pharmacy degree at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. This study was a longitudinal, observational study which incorporated only quantitative aspects. Factors included in the investigation were: student motivation; learning styles; prior academic achievement; language use and sources of financial support. In order to determine student motivation, an Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) was used. Learning styles were assessed using a Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI) tool. The student’s National Senior Certificate (NSC) results were compared to the students 2016 semester one final marks, to correlate student readiness and prior academic achievement with current academic achievement. Home language and sources of financial support were also evaluated using a purpose-designed questionnaire. Results showed that only the Life Sciences module was practically and statistically significant as a predictor of academic success, with a p-value of .001 and a correlation coefficient |r| value of .369. The minimum entry requirements for the BPharm Degree do not include Life Science, however, based on this study, inclusion of Life Sciences at a specific achievement level should be considered.
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Date Issued: 2017

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Self-perceived professional identity of pharmacy educators

- Burton, Susan

Authors: Burton, Susan
Date: 2012
Subjects: Academic identity , Communities of practice , Identity (Philosophical concept) , Pharmacy -- Study and teaching , Pharmacy
Language: English
Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
Identifier: vital:10139 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1008352 , Academic identity , Communities of practice , Identity (Philosophical concept) , Pharmacy -- Study and teaching , Pharmacy
Description: The philosophy of pharmaceutical care, which defines a patient-centred approach to practice, has been embraced and upheld by national and international pharmaceutical organisations for two decades. However, pharmacists have been slow to change their practice and implement a pharmaceutical care approach. It has been suggested that amongst other factors, short-comings in pharmaceutical education have contributed to this reluctance of the profession to transform practice. Efforts to address these short-comings in pharmaceutical education have focused on the curriculum and pedagogic practices, and not on the pharmacy educators themselves. Palmer (1998) asserts that “good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher”. In essence, "we teach who we are" and good teachers have one common trait: “a strong sense of personal identity that infuses their work”. This study identified, described and analysed the self-perceived professional identities of pharmacy educators within the South African context. This included ascertaining factors and contexts which contributed to participants’ self-perception of their professional identity. In an effort to understand the influence the educators have on practice and on changing practice and vice-versa, the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of participants regarding the philosophy and practice of pharmaceutical care, and pharmaceutical education were also explored. Situated within a constructivist-interpretive, qualitative paradigm and making use of methodological triangulation, this study was conducted in three phases, each employing a different qualitative method to collect data. The first phase made use of narrative analysis to gain an in-depth understanding of pharmacy educators’ perceived professional identities and to explore how their experiences, across various contexts, have formed their professional identities. In-depth individual narrative interviews were used to provide a forum in which the participants could reflect upon and tell their professional life-story. This phase of the study also made use of the exploration of metaphors to further investigate the participants’ professional identity and, more particularly, their images of themselves as “teacher” and role model for students. A maximum variation, purposeful sampling approach was used to recruit eight pharmacy academics - one from each school or faculty of pharmacy in South Africa, as participants in this phase of the study. The second and third phases explored more widely, the insights gained from the first phase and the formation of professional identity, attitudes, beliefs and practices of pharmacy educators in South Africa. Two focus groups were employed during the second phase and the study sample was broadened to include a further ten pharmacy educators. In the third phase, a purpose-designed, qualitative questionnaire was used to extend the study sample to all pharmacy educators in South Africa. A convenience sampling approach was used in both the second and third phases of the study. Thematic analysis and interpretation of the narrative interview and focus group transcripts and the questionnaire responses were conducted using qualitative data analysis software – Atlas.ti®. A multiplicity of self-perceived professional identities was described. However, all of these were multi-faceted and could be situated on a continuum between pharmacist identity on one end and academic identity on the other. In addition, six key determinants were recognised as underpinning the participants’ self-perception of their professional identity. These included three structural determinants: expected role; knowledge base; and practice, and three determinants relating to the emotional dimensions and agency of professional identity: professional status; passions; and satisfiers. The professional identity of the participants had been formed through membership of multiple pharmacy-related communities of practice and continued to be sustained through a nexus of multi-membership. There was extensive support by the participants for the concept of pharmaceutical care; however, it did not impact extensively on their role as pharmacy educators. Furthermore, many expressed concern around the use of the term ‘pharmaceutical care’: its definition; its lack of penetration into, and implementation within the practice environment; and even its relevance to the South African healthcare context. Many of the participants perceived the professional development of future pharmacists to be integral to their role as educators, and was often their source of greatest professional satisfaction. However, concern was also expressed at the dissonance that students were perceived to experience, sometimes, because of the incongruities that they are taught and what they experience in practice. This study has afforded pharmacy educators in South Africa an opportunity to understand better “who” they are as professionals, and to reflect on their role as educators and as role models for future pharmacist. Moreover, the findings contribute to a collective understanding of the professional identity of pharmacy educators and socialisation of pharmacy students into the profession. The insights and recommendations emerging from the study have the potential to make academic pharmacy a more attractive career choice which may have positive implications for the future attraction and retention of pharmacists to academic posts within universities.
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Date Issued: 2012

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