(41) Results from Phase One and Two of a Theory to Practice Approach to Advocacy Training

Objective : To improve the student pharmacists’ knowledge, attitudes, skills and competence in advocacy for the pharmacy profession.

Methods: A single-center prospective cohort study consisting of first professional year student pharmacists at the start of Fall 2022. Student pharmacists completed a survey to provide baseline data regarding their prior participation and attitude towards engagement in legislative advocacy, knowledge of state and federal legislators, and their self-perceived political advocacy skills before they were introduced to pharmacy legislative advocacy utilizing the Political Skills Inventory (PSI) scale during Fall 2022 (T1) and at the start of Spring 2023 (T2). Each item was scored on a seven-point Likert-scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Data was analyzed using a paired sample t-test to determine a statistically significant difference in the knowledge, attitudes, and skills.

Results: Forty student pharmacists were included in the data analysis. The perceptions of advocacy skills and responsibilities improved in the specific items: “If meeting, I know what to expect when I meet with legislators and their staffers” (p=0.010); “As a student pharmacist, I believe I can influence policy being considered by my legislators” (p=0.023); “As a student pharmacist, I believe it is important to contact my legislators about issues that will affect the way I practice within the profession of pharmacy”(p=.002). Overall PSI composite increased from 5.67 to 5.52. There was notable improvement in the PSI subscales-apparent sincerity (6.19 vs. 6.44) and social astuteness (5.46 vs. 5.73).

Conclusions: Implementation of a curricular-based approach to advocacy training of student pharmacists has shown improvements in the perceptions of advocacy skills and responsibilities, and the PSI subscales of apparent sincerity and social astuteness.