"Locate the Law" activity: Evaluating student pharmacists' ability to locate and use legal resources

Pharmacy students must be able to locate and use legal resources to prepare for licensure and be practice-ready. We aimed to assess pharmacy students' ability and confidence in locating and using publicly available legal resources.

The "Locate the Law" activity was implemented in a pharmacy law course in the fall of 2021, 2022, and 2023 for third-year pharmacy students at 1 college of pharmacy in the Mid-South. The activity consisted of a 108-question (61 law questions) survey that evaluated the students' confidence before and after they were required to locate publicly available legal resources online and answer a set of guided questions about each resource. Descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted to evaluate student responses. The University of Tennessee Institutional Review Board approved this study.

A total of 363 students participated in the study (response rate: 77%) over a 3-year period. Most students were female (67%), on average 25 years old, and reported having pharmacy work experience (95%). Before the activity, students reported being slight to somewhat confident in finding a statute (mean [M]: 2.5) or regulation (M: 2.5). Most graded question responses averaged ≥ 90%, and no question scored below a 75% average. After the activity, students' confidence increased significantly increased in finding a statute (M: 4.1) or regulation (M: 4.1).

The "Locate the Law" activity significantly improved student pharmacists' self-reported confidence in locating publicly available legal resources, and most students correctly answered most activity questions. Pharmacy law educators should consider incorporating training on using legal resources in the pharmacy law course.