Game-based learning: A court to promote pharmacy careers

In many countries, the growing shortage of pharmacists has been identified as a major public health issue. Pharmacy schools are crucial to providing sufficient numbers of pharmacists for all career paths, that is, community (C), industrial (I) and hospital (H). However, they currently struggle to recruit and retain students; drop-out rates average 25%.

Lack of awareness of the wide range of opportunities contributes to this disaffection for pharmacy studies and careers. This misinformation leads one in three students to neglect the lesser-known specialties. Game-based learning (GBL) has proven to facilitate student engagement and knowledge.¹ We aimed to use this approach to promote and strengthen interest in pharmaceutical specialties among students.

Students completed a first survey (S1) after the opening lecture including questions about: (a) identification of professions available by career path, (b) career intentions and (c) level of interest by career path. They answered these questions again after the trial (S2) and evaluated PCC. To make follow-up possible, students provided their ID.

Of the 66 entering students, 95% completed both surveys. Half of the 14 undecided students in S1 declared a career intention in S2. Participants identified a greater number of professions available by career path in S2 (S2-S1 mean differences = +2.9 for C, +10.2 for I, +6.6 for H; p < 0.001). Furthermore, the number of professions identified for H positively correlated with the level of interest for this career (r = 0.37; p < 0.001). Student feedback was highly positive: ‘The format was funny, dynamic and interesting; there was never a dull moment’; ‘It allowed us to meet professionals and discover lesser-known jobs’.

These results suggest that the PCC is a useful, stimulating activity to help students identify specialties and career opportunities. We would confirm these findings with new cohorts. Our court has implications for any medical or health curriculum aiming to promote careers. This format is easy to implement and translate in other medical education settings.

Céline Slekovec: Conceptualization; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing; project administration; validation; investigation. Thierry Pelaccia: Supervision; validation; writing – review and editing. Milena Abbiati: Methodology; formal analysis; writing – review and editing; validation; software; supervision; investigation; data curation.

None.

The chair of the Cantonal Commission for Ethical Research (CCER) designed the current study protocol as exempted from formal review (protocol 2020–00813).