Student organization prevalence and structures in US schools of pharmacy

Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) Standards 2016 emphasize co-curricular programming to complement formal curriculums. Programming engagement through student pharmacist organizations is foundational to many schools' co-curriculum. Adequate funding, membership engagement, and governance structures are vital factors that, in turn, help these groups thrive over time. However, minimal literature exists depicting financial support, governance, and membership engagement for benchmarking purposes. The current study's objective was to examine these parameters at a national level among schools of pharmacy.

Student affairs personnel identified through the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Student Services Special Interest Group received a link to an anonymous Qualtrics survey. Survey data comparing programs were analyzed descriptively and via t-test (continuous data) and Fisher's exact test (nominal data) using Graph Pad Prism 8.

Seventy-three schools completed the survey. The majority (53%) were public institutions. Limiting the number of organizations allowed on campus occurred at 39.7% of schools. Regarding formation/funding policies, 75% published policies for organization formation, and 53% published policies for financial support. Use of an "umbrella" format for governance was present in 36% of responding schools. The average number of organizations per school was 11, conducting an average of 10.4 chapter meetings/month. The percent of enrolled students on average belonging to a given organization ranged from 2.2% to over 40%. Ninety-three percent reported that organizations assist in the inculcation of professionalism among student pharmacists.

Pharmacy schools are inconsistent in their approach to student organization formation, funding policies, and governance.