An academic pharmacy elective designed on the three pillars of academia

To describe the structure and benefits of an Academic Pharmacy elective designed on the pillars of academia: Teaching, Scholarship, and Service.

The Academic Pharmacy elective was developed as an introduction to the career of pharmacy faculty framed in the academic pillars of teaching, scholarship, and service. The three-credit elective was divided into two hours of weekly class meetings and one credit hour consisting of 30 h of in-person practical teaching in the first-year skills laboratory course as a near peer teachers (NPT). The elective met weekly for an in-person two hour lecture over 15 weeks. The course employed a threshold-based honors, pass, and fail grading system that emphasized participation and major projects, including development of a scholarship project plan and completion of an educational design activity. The pillar of service was addressed through course classroom discussions.

Since 2018, 54 third-year students have completed the elective, with approximately six to seven each year (range of four to twelve students per year). Students enrolled in the elective have collectively taught 1620 h over the past eight years. The scholarship projects have led to 32 poster presentations and 8 manuscripts with the third-year students and course coordinators.

Course coordinators utilized the pillars of academia to design the Academic Elective. Faculty and the institution have recognized the impact on teaching and scholarship through quantity of teaching hours and number of scholarly outputs, respectively. However, the impact of the scholarship aim for the course has not been well captured and may require additional structured methods to assess student contributions and participation in this pillar. This manuscript describes how this elective was designed, so that faculty from other institutions may consider if they want to implement a similar structured elective.