Abstracts and Index of Authors

In 2000, the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration published a now famous survey, The Pharmacist Workforce: A Study of the Supply and Demand for Pharmacists, evidencing the demand for pharmacists had out-paced the growth in supply. Estimates set the shortfall of pharmacists to be as much as 157,000 by the year 2020 (D. A. Knapp, 2002). Since then, substantial growth has occurred in pharmacy education, including the increase of admissions in established programs as well as the addition of new schools and colleges of pharmacy (Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, 2011). It is important for the profession to maintain a robust supply of pharmacy applicants. At the same time, however, the supply must also contain applicants of sufficient academic quality to meet the demands of rigorous programs. Adequate models of pharmacy enrollment management are salient for the steady growth and overall quality assurance of the profession's future. In this vein, recruitment of potential pharmacy students has become increasingly important. Consequently, we employed qualitative methodology to the present study, since it often is most germane with exploratory research. It also was most appropriate since we were most interested in "why" and "how" research questions (i.e., why did pharmacy students select a newly-established program at this institution and how did they come to this decision?), as opposed to "what" or "how many" type research questions. Previous surveys of pharmacy students found that role model practitioners as significant influences (Chisolm & Pritchard, 1995). In another study 63.9% of students knew a pharmacist who influenced them towards pharmacy (Anderson, Sheffield, Massey-Hill, & Cobb, 2008). Other significant influences include family members, high school and college teachers, instructor, advisors, or counselors, and other health care professionals. However, 53.5% of students in this sample indicated that their first choice for a career was something other than pharmacy. No characterizations were given of those students for whom pharmacy was the first, or perhaps, only choice. These data are also limited due to the survey respondents being in professional programs. Also, these students were older with the majority being between the ages of 21-25 years of age. Little is known about students' perceptions or motivations during more formative teenage years, prior to entering professional programs. Here we present the findings from a phenomenological, qualitative study in which we explored the personal constructs of an inaugural pre-pharmacy class that matriculated in a newly-established, preferred admission, pre-pharmacy program. The focus of the study was to appraise students' perceptions regarding their rationale for pursuing a future career. As a phenomenological research study, we explored these percepts with students, engaging them in the interview process, seeking to understand how they came to make the respective decisions that they did--at the time of selecting an institution and pre-pharmacy program to attend. We gave particular attention to the potential components that loaded-into or influenced their decision-making processes. Method Participants Participants for the present study came from a private, comprehensive, Midwest university with a student body of approximately 3,000. The 36 students comprised the inaugural class of pre-pharmacy majors to a program that was newly-initiated and had not yet received professional accreditation. Consequently, in the qualitative research tradition, we used criterion sampling (Mason, 2002) as the basis for the present study. Since homogeneity of sample generally results in best and unambiguous themes in qualitative approaches to research (Firmin, 2006), we directed our data collection on one university campus sample. Saturation (Bowen, 2008) was achieved from the sample of these students. Within a qualitative paradigm, this means that adding new individuals to the data set failed to contribute new, meaningful information related to potential themes. …