Preferences and perceptions of pharmacy students on the sectoral development of community pharmacy in Belgium

Introduction:Building the future of the pharmacist profession today must be done by listening to the actors of tomorrow. Their wishes and main motivations must be integrated into reflections. The university needs to understand how students plan for their future professions. Consistency between teaching and sectoral development is at the heart of university concerns: anticipating professional changes can help the academic body build flexible programmes to align with professional development and best prepare actors of tomorrow.Objectives:To assess the preferences and perception of Master's students in pharmaceutical sciences among various potential sectoral evolution in the field of pharmacies open to the public. This researchquestions how future pharmacists rank in order of importance and preference for the potential sectoral developments in their profession.Methods: An online questionnaire was sent to Belgian student in pharmaceutical sciences to understand their preferences concerning the various missions expected to be part of the role of pharmacists in the years to come. Some of these missions already exist in Belgium, others already exist abroad, and others still need to be the responsibility of the pharmacist at present. The questionnaire used a best-worst scaling (BWS) approach to determine a hierarchy of preferences on a set of attributes describing the potential sectoral developments in community 389pharmacists. The BWS then makes it possible to classify preferences based on choices and to compare preferences among all the attributes considered. Respondents do not only express their preferences among the proposed attributes but also provide information through their responses as to the most preferable and least preferable attributes in their eyes. The research team agreed on a list of 18 attributes to characterize the profession of community pharmacists and its potential sectoral developments. The 18 attributes were: preparation and dispensing of medication, pharmaceutical care, adjustment/substitution, continuity of treatment, care monitoring/risk prevention, medication review, self-medication, prescription, adherence support, health prevention and promotion, drug analysis, inter-professional collaboration, pharmaceutical care, vaccination, screening, withdrawal/deprescription, return home after hospitalization and home care.Results: The topics for which students showed the greatest interest were delivery of medication with advice on the proper use, prevention, identifying and resolving potential drug-related problems or even assisting the patient in a self-medication situation.The themes with the lowest interest were Greenpharmacy, the collection of used products and sustainable practices.Conclusion: Future pharmacists do not wish to replace medical doctorsand have little interest in diagnosis, prescription and laboratory analysis. Moreover, the lack of interest of future pharmacists in Greenpharmacy raises questions. Making students aware of this significant environmental challenge should be encouraged.