The Perception of Pharmacology Among College Students: An East London Perspective

Pharmacology is an integrative discipline that plays an integral part in the development of new medicines with improved safety and efficacy profiles. Sustained growth of this important discipline within the UK is made possible through training of the next generation of pharmacologists. In order to ensure that interest in pharmacology continues to grow, endeavors aimed at exposing students to pharmacology from earlier stages of their educational journeys have to be put in place. To this end, the current study aimed at capturing the perception of further education students on pharmacology in the East London area. This survey-based study, which took place between 2020 and 2021, consisted of multiple choice questions. The study revealed that over 80% of the surveyed biology and chemistry students have previously heard about pharmacology. However, when assessing their basic knowledge of pharmacology, it emerged that students had a somewhat distorted perception of pharmacology, as only 9.8% of the students associated pharmacology with biology. Additionally, students confused pharmacology with pharmacy. Students also had a somewhat limited understanding of what pharmacologists do. Finally, 23.5% of the students stated that they would consider studying pharmacology at university if they received sufficient introduction, with 92.2% of the students stating that they would like to see pharmacology added to their further education curriculum. In order to ensure the growth of pharmacology in the UK and given the misconceptions that students have, as highlighted in this study, we recommend that basic pharmacology education be introduced to the further education curriculum.