Perceptions of Professional Identity and Competency Levels of Final Year Pharmacy Students of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria

Abstract:

For a long time, it was believed that students studying health related courses required only knowledge and skills to be effective professionals. It is now clear that becoming a professional is a complex process involving not only knowledge and/or skills but also the formation of a professional identity. The aim of this study was to explore perceptions of final year pharmacy students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria about their professional identities and the competencies they had acquired during their undergraduate training. The study was cross sectional and used a structured questionnaire to collect data in October 2023. The study questionnaire was subdivided into three sections. The first section collected information about respondents’ demographic characteristics. Items in the second section explored respondents’ perceptions of their professional identity and the final section contained 26 behavioral statements as contained in the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) global competency framework. Descriptive statistics were used to report the results obtained. A total of 104 responses was obtained out of 123 students selected, producing an 84.6% response rate. Majority of the respondents were male (51.9%) and aged between 21-25 years (52.9%). Most of the respondents considered themselves pharmacists (74%) and reported having an understanding of their roles as pharmacists (95.2%). Of the 9 potential professional identities for pharmacists provided to respondents, medicines advisor was the most selected identity (90.4%) while the least selected one was unremarkable character (26.9%). Respondent’ agreement with the behavioral statements ranged from 77.9% to 99%. In conclusion, respondents identified with several professional roles and perceived themselves as capable of carrying out the selected FIP behavioral statements.