Assessing public health knowledge and perceptions of pharmacy students before and after completion of didactic and experiential public health coursework

ObjectivesTo characterize baseline public health knowledge and to evaluate changes in pharmacy student performance after participation in one semester of didactic and experiential public health coursework.MethodsThird-year professional students were surveyed before and after fall semester 2013, a semester in which they completed two public health courses.ResultsTotal public health knowledge score increased from 61.5% to 65.2% (p = 0.006). An increase in mean knowledge score was significant for the domains of social and behavioral science, and epidemiology, but not for the domains of biostatistics, environmental health, and health policy. Students initially perceived the pharmacy curriculum to do the best at preparing them in epidemiology, but this perception changed to social and behavioral science after taking the public health courses.ConclusionA semester of focused public health exposure increased knowledge scores in public health topics by 3.7%. Perceptions about public health education in the pharmacy curriculum were also changed.