A Co-Curricular Activity to Introduce Pharmacy Students to the Concepts of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Objective. To develop, implement, and evaluate a co-curricular activity in which second-year Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students developed an idea for a new clinical pharmacy service. Methods. A brief co-curricular activity based on the television series SharkTank was developed to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. Second-year pharmacy students worked in assigned teams and were allowed one hour to develop an innovative clinical service to solve a pharmacy-related problem. Students then "pitched" their idea to a panel of four faculty members who served as the "sharks" and graded the teams using a rubric. The rubric which was employed was mapped to the Center for the Advancement of Pharmacy Education (CAPE) Educational Outcomes. A pre- and post-activity survey was administered to students to gather information about changes in their perceptions of innovation and entrepreneurship in pharmacy. Results. Student groups received higher scores on their ability to present background information and the need for their clinical service and lower scores in areas such as tracking outcomes and predicting challenges. On the post-activity survey, 96.7% of students agreed that the activity gave them a better understanding of pharmacists' roles in establishing new clinical services, and 86.7% stated they intend to actively seek out new clinical pharmacy service opportunities in their future career. Conclusion. Results of the survey demonstrate that students understand the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship in pharmacy practice, and almost all students felt that the activity gave them an even better understanding of the pharmacist's role in clinical service development. This activity can serve as a blueprint for schools of pharmacy looking to incorporate creative and fun methods of exposing PharmD students to innovation and entrepreneurship activities.