Table 3.
Details of major themes describing student learning expectations.
| Theme | Typical Comments (Verbatim) Illustrating the Theme |
|---|---|
| Special populations * | “Be more comfortable about treating or counselling special populations”; “To be more informed of special populations and less chance of making a mistake”; “I hope to gain a better understanding of how certain drugs affect certain people varying in their race, gender”. |
| Public health * | “Learn more about the role of pharmacists in public health”; “I hope to learn more about educating the public effectively on improving their health”; “How public health is important to pharmacists and patients”. |
| Drug discovery and development * | “Hope to know the progress of drug discovery”; “To understand the method of drug discovery behind medications”; “Get a better understanding of how industry works” |
| Understanding pharmacology * | “To gain a more profound understanding of pharmacological aspects”; “Understand more about clinical pharmacology and its usage”; “Gain knowledge in clinical pharmacology topics” |
| Learn this topic | “I want to learn more in depth about my elective”; “Learn the important focus point of the course”; “Just to become more of an expert in this area”. |
| For my career | “Be able to use what I have learned in this class for rotations and in future job”; “Learn materials that I can apply to my future career”; “Something beneficial to my profession”. |
| Real world application | “How to apply it in practice”; “Learn applications to real life”; “I hope to learn about how to better prepare for working in pharmacy in the real world”. |
| Geriatrics/pediatrics | “How to better care for children as a healthcare professional”; “How to better care for geriatrics as a healthcare professional”; “Learn more information about disease states affecting paediatric, geriatric and pregnant populations”. |
| Research skills | “Improve research skills”; “develop unique skills for a role in industry work”; “My expectation is to try and gain research knowledge”. |
| Extend my knowledge | “To give us an idea about different fields of pharmacy”; “Updated on current events relevant to course”; “Learn a new perspective in the pharmacy field”. |
| Communication skills | “Communication skill building”; “I want to be a better pharmacist by learning about how to approach others”; “I also want the chance to improve my public speaking skills”. |
| Learn better | “I also want to develop my ability to self engage in my learning and develop those skills”; “Examining myself as to how well I can learn complicated subjects are online learning and self studying”; “Also to familiarise myself with a class in an electronic setting, as this is our future due to flexibility and convenience”. |
| Something new | “Learn something new”; “I hope to learn more about topics not covered in typical course material”; “To learn about new research/discoveries about medications/treatments”. |
| Serve patients | “To better serve patients. I chose a selective because I think the information will be more useful as a pharmacist”; “How it truly is to work in a public setting as pharmacist”; |
| Something interesting | “Bringing interest, new fields of practice”; “Learn about interesting topics”. |
| Drug mechanisms | “MOA for all drugs learned”; “To understand the mechanisms of medications”. |
* These themes related directly to elective topic.