Preconception of Pharmacy Students for the Inclusion of Entrepreneurship Curriculum in the PharmD Program

Abstract:

Objectives: Pharmacy program offers many entrepreneurial opportunities in hospital, community and industrial sectors. Entrepreneurship is recognized, implemented and encouraged in many Universities around the world as a separate program to ease out the problems of unemployment. However, not all pharmacy students can afford to study dual programs to become an entrepreneur; hence, it would be worthwhile if it included in the PharmD curriculum. Methods: To assess the preconception of pharmacy students for the inclusion of entrepreneurial courses in the PharmD program, a descriptive, crosssectional survey method was adopted. One hundred and five senior PharmD students were selected to respond to the structured questionnaire, on the Likert scale, which contained six domains with fifty-six questions. Content validity of the questionnaire was performed, and the reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach's Alpha. The survey was conducted from February to March 2019. Outcomes were computed into mean scores, and Spearman's Rho was computed using SPSS version 23. Results: The study revealed that students possessed adequate entrepreneurial knowledge, mindset, personality, and attitude; however, they lacked confidence and skills in venturing into the task after their graduation. The majority of the students strongly agreed to the concept of entrepreneurship and were interested in overcoming their weaknesses. Conclusion: It could be concluded that entrepreneurial activities must be strengthened among pharmacy students by designing and adopting a suitable curriculum to encourage self-employment.

Key words: PharmD, Entrepreneurship, Personality, Knowledge, Attitude, Self-employment.