Grit in pharmacy faculty: A pilot analysis focused on productivity measures

Grit, a "perseverance and passion for long-term goals," is an important characteristic that has been linked to success in academics and career endeavors. In pharmacy education, there have been mixed results on grit as a predictor of academic performance in pharmacy students. Furthermore, there have been no studies on the implications of grit in pharmacy faculty. The purpose of this study was to determine pharmacy faculty Short Grit Scale (Grit-S) scores at two universities and whether those scores correlate with faculty productivity.

A 36-item electronic survey was administered to pharmacy faculty members at two institutions. Baseline demographics and self-reported Grit-S scores were obtained. Metrics of productivity in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and service were defined using quantitative measures. Non-parametric analyses were conducted to test if higher Grit-S scores correlated with other variables.

Faculty reported an average Grit-S score of 3.68. There was no significant correlation between Grit-S scores and components of faculty productivity in teaching and service for the previous academic year or career. Higher Grit-S scores had a moderately positive correlation with the number of peer-reviewed publications in 2017.

Grit-S scores are high among pharmacy faculty and were not correlated with higher productivity in most components of faculty workload.