Empowering and educating the next generation of pharmacists through children’s books: A quality assurance initiative

Abstract

Objective

The objective of this quality assurance initiative was to internally measure children’s perceptions of the book, “All Aboard the Rx-Express!” and knowledge gained from its content.

Methods

This pharmacy-focused children’s book was read to elementary-age youth at a rural, Pennsylvania elementary school in the Spring of 2022. A brief, optional, anonymous prepost survey was administered to the youth before and after the reading to measure the book’s impact on third through fifth graders’ perceptions and knowledge of the pharmacy profession. Descriptive statistics, chi squared analysis, independent samples t-tests, and one sample proportions tests were used to analyze survey responses.

Results

One hundred ninety-one students participated in the presurvey to assess baseline knowledge about the pharmacy profession before the book was read. One hundred eighty-five students answered the postsurvey. Prepost respondent demographics were collected in aggregate and were not significantly different between the pre- and postcohorts. Survey results demonstrated an increase in all questions that asked about students’ perceptions of pharmacists and the profession, and students reported favorable perceptions of the book itself.

Conclusion

Early interventions such as this can increase elementary-age youth’s perceptions and knowledge of the roles of pharmacists. Future work in early intervention will be needed to increase interest in the profession and admissions to pharmacy schools.