Selecting pharmacy students with appropriate communication skills

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Spring 2000 by Jones, Janet, Krass, Ines, Holder, Gerald M, Robinson, Rosalie A

The performance of the satisfactory and the unsatisfactory interview groups on the STAT and the MASUS was compared. Figure 1 shows the comparison of the median STAT-verbal and total percentiles and indicated a significantly higher median rank in the satisfactory interview group (MannWhitney U test; STAT-total P

Using logistic regression, the dichotomous outcome of the interview, unsatisfactory or satisfactory, was investigated using the STAT scores as independent predictor variables (Table III). Both the verbal and the total scores were statistically significant predictors of oral ability. These scores were also predictors of the MASUS outcomes, similarly measured as unsatisfactory or satisfactory (Table IV). The odds ratios for the STAT-verbal and STAT-total ranged from 1.09 to 1.24 and from 1.11 to 1.24 respectively. These indicate that the STAT values are good predictors of communication skill outcomes.

The MASUS criteria scores, TER, interview scores, STAT verbal and STAT-quantitative scores were investigated as predictors of the WAM. The only statistically significant predictors were the TER, MASUS C and STAT-quantitative (Table V) which together accounted for 41.4 percent of the variance in the WAM. The TER accounted for the major part of this, while MASUS C accounted for the least. The results of this regression are comparable to predictions of GPA, summarized by Cunny and Perri (15), apart from the absence of a real measure of reading comprehension.

DISCUSSION

The problems of selection of the most suitable students to admit to pharmacy schools are substantially different in the U.S. from those faced in Australia, New Zealand and Britain. There is some debate in the U.S. on the most suitable students to admit, and an editorial view has been expressed that choice of students with strength in chemistry and mathematics is probably coupled with relatively undeveloped interpersonal skills(22). The major fraction of the intake in Australia, New Zealand and Britain is directly from high school so that there is no prior tertiary study to serve as a predictor of performance, and procedures rely very heavily on final school exit results. Furthermore, these countries have not relied on any testing, such as that offered by the PLAT, which assesses general verbal and mathematical abilities as well as specific knowledge and understanding of biology and chemistry.

The use of multiple selection criteria is a more complex and a richer process in which desired characteristics of the student cohort can be sought. These characteristics must obviously include measures of aptitude for study of mathematics, biology and chemistry, and should also encompass generic attributes such as problem solving abilities and the capacity for tertiary study. Powis, in referring to the selection of medical students suggests that procedures could also exclude those deemed to be `conspicuously unsuitable' from the profession(2). The demand for places in pharmacy colleges is high and cohorts of applicants display very good academic skills measured by prior tertiary results or school exit marks. Thus, the use of multiple selection criteria affords an increased likelihood of making the best choices from a large pool of applicants. This should have an impact on student success, reduce attrition and potentially improve the professional services offered by graduates after registration.