The Effect of Several Factors on Student Pharmacists’ Choice of Drug Information Resources

Introduction: The provision of drug information (DI) is a fundamental responsibility of pharmacists. The availability of advanced technology and mobile devices has greatly affected how drug information is retrieved. Utilization of these resources and references are unique skills taught in pharmacy programs to help meet the need of pharmacists in practice and to meet national accreditation standards. Currently there is little information on how different factors influence pharmacy students’ choice of drug information resources.

Methods: A prospective, cross-sectional survey was developed to assess pharmacy students’ utilization of tertiary DI resources by age, gender, and year in professional program. The survey was developed using the software Qualtrics® and contained questions pertaining to the selection of specific tertiary DI resources used most often for a variety of DI topics. Differences between groups were calculated using ANOVA.

Results: Students in their P4 year utilized tertiary DI resources more frequently than students in their P1 and P2 year (p= <0.001, 0.001 respectively). There were no differences in the frequency of resource utilization between males and females surveyed (p=0.656, MD = 0.0652). Total usage of DI resources differed by year in professional school.

Conclusion: The results of this study may be beneficial to pharmacy schools as it provides insights into the factors that influence student preference for tertiary drug information resources. This study found that age, year in school, and type of drug information request impacted students’ use of tertiary DI resources.