Evaluation of pharmacy student perceptions and stereotypes of healthcare professionals before and after an internal medicine advanced pharmacy practice experience

Background: A focus of delivering effective patient-centered care is working as an interprofessional team. Pharmacy students may harbor stereotypes of other healthcare professions that could impede collaboration. The objective of this study was to assess pharmacy student ratings of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals' characteristics before and after their internal medicine advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) to determine if the APPE altered their stereotypes. A pre- and post-survey utilizing the Student Stereotypes Rating Questionnaire (SSRQ) was used to carry out the study goals. Impact: Students had more interactions with pharmacists, physicians, and nurses than with other professionals. Pharmacy students' perceptions of their own profession (autostereotypes) were higher compared to the other disciplines, with a movement towards equality following APPE completion. Students also rated professionals lower if they completed the survey in earlier APPE blocks. These results are limited by the lack of coupling between surveys, a low response rate, and incomplete surveys. Recommendations: Methods that would have strengthened results include focusing on the healthcare professionals that students interacted with most, quantifying the number of experiences they had with each group before and after the rotation, requiring answers to all survey questions, and a strategy to match pre- and post-survey results. Discussion: Despite the limitations of the study, the experiences gained during the APPE positively impacted student perceptions and attitudes towards other healthcare disciplines. This experience type may be a key component to producing pharmacy graduates who are prepared to work collaboratively with other professionals.