Empower Prospective Pharmacists through Children’s Books

Enrollment and applications to pharmacy schools across the United States are declining.¹ This comes alongside negative portrayal of the pharmacy profession in media outlets.² With admissions at an all-time low, universities are met with the challenge to maintain interest in the profession of pharmacy through creative recruiting efforts.³ Although many pharmacy schools may choose to focus their recruitment strategies on high school or undergraduate students, students at the University of Pittsburgh saw this as an opportunity to inspire an even younger generation of pharmacy students by creating a pharmacy children’s book.

Jaccie Hisashima, PharmD, and Shay Roth, 2024 PharmD Candidate, co-authored and published the children’s book titled All Aboard the Rx-Express!, highlighting several different pharmacy careers for kids to show the wide variety of jobs that a pharmacist can have.⁴ This book was made possible under the guidance of University of Pittsburgh faculty Dr. Randall Smith and Dr. Ashley Yarabinec and with support from Dean Amy Seybert, Dr. Patricia Kroboth, Dr. Rhea Bowman, Dr. Martha Ndung’u, and Dr. Maureen Reynolds. Since the book’s first publication, it has also been translated to Spanish by Class of 2026 PharmD student Carla Medina-Gil.⁵

This short story, illustrated by Roth, portrays pharmacists in a variety of settings and was written with the intent to introduce the career in a fun and understandable way for children and inspire kids to pursue their dreams. The rhyming children’s book is complete with illustrations of diverse characters so that children are able to visualize themselves in the role of the pharmacist. To our knowledge, no research has been completed on the impact of pharmacy career-focused books on children, but existing evidence supports early introductions of health care careers through a variety of methods for children to promote interest in professions.^6-9

To assess whether or not the book truly sparked an interested in and understanding of the pharmacy profession, a quality assurance initiative was performed at a rural elementary school. A pre-survey was given to 191 third, fourth, and fifth grade students before the book was read to assess preconceptions about the profession of pharmacy and pharmacists. This same survey was given to 185 students after the book was read to assess students’ change in perception, alongside questions pertaining to students’ opinions and learnings from the book. No unique identifying information was collected and the survey was completely optional. Exemption from the Institutional Review Board was obtained as this study was conducted as a quality-assurance initiative. No funding was used to conduct this study.

Questions that were asked include the following, in which students would select whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement.

Pre- and post-survey questions:

• I know what a pharmacist does.
• I am considering becoming a pharmacist.
• I know a pharmacist can give vaccinations.
• I am interested in learning about more careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, or mathematics).
• I am interested in learning more about pharmacy.
• I feel pharmacists have played an important role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
• I am considering a career in health care.

Post-survey questions only:

1. I saw a character in the book who looked like me.
2. I felt that the book represented a wide variety of people.
3. I felt that the book represented a wide variety of jobs in the pharmaceutical industry.
4. I learned something new from this book.

Results showed that there was a positive increase in all questions explicitly asking about the profession of pharmacy or pharmacists from before to after the book was read. The most significant changes were seen in the statements “I know a pharmacist can give vaccinations” (p<0.001) and “I know what a pharmacist does” (p<0.001). A majority of students (80.54%) felt that they learned something new from this book (p<0.001).

These results suggest that elementary-aged students were able to learn about the profession of pharmacy by witnessing a brief presentation and reading the children’s book All Aboard the Rx-Express!, which they may not have been exposed to otherwise. This quality assurance project provides valuable insight that initiatives such as reading a children’s book to youth may impact the future of pharmacy by introducing careers early on. We believe that utilizing educational tools such as this can promote and increase interest in the profession to inspire children to pursue a career in pharmacy.

Since the book’s English and Spanish publications, Professors Amy Donihi and Roberta Farrah helped Hisashima and Roth co-author and publish 2 more children’s books focused on diabetes and asthma education and how pharmacists can help manage these disease states.^10-13 All books have been translated to Spanish by Medina-Gil. It is the team’s hope that these children’s books will be used for years to come to promote health literacy, education, and awareness about the profession of pharmacy and inspire the next generation of pharmacists.

References

1. Student Applications, Enrollments and Degrees Conferred. Am Assoc Coll Pharm. Accessed June 24, 2023. https://www.aacp.org/research/student-applications-enrollments-and-degrees-conferred

2. Yanicak A, Mohorn PL, Monterroyo P, Furgiuele G, Waddington L, Bookstaver PB. Public perception of pharmacists: Film and television portrayals from 1970 to 2013. J Am Pharm Assoc. 2015;55(6):578-586. doi:10.1331/JAPhA.2015.15028.

3. Pavuluri N, Aparasu RR, Boje KMK, et al. Consideration of Aggressive and Strategic Approaches to Address Declining Enrollment in US Pharmacy Schools. Am J Pharm Educ. 2019;83(6):6959. doi:10.5688/ajpe6959.

4. Roth S, Hisashima J. All Aboard the Rx-Express: Pharmacy Children’s Book. Kindle and Amazon Direct Publishing; 2021

5. Roth S, Hisashima J, Medina-Gil C. Todos a Bordo del Rx-Express (Spanish Edition). Kindle and Amazon Direct Publishing. Mar 2023.

6. Goldsmith CA, Tran TT, Tran L. An Educational Program for Underserved Middle School Students to Encourage Pursuit of Pharmacy and Other Health Science Careers. Am J Pharm Educ. 2014;78(9):167. doi:10.5688/ajpe789167.

7. Balakhonov AV, Golovanova NE, Astratenkova IV, Pariyskaya EN, Zakharova LB. Formation of a conscious choice of a career in medicine in school children and junior medical university students. Ilk Online. 2021;20(5).

8. Habashi MM, Graziano WG, Evangelou D, Ngambeki I. Teacher influences on child interest in STEM careers. InProceedings Res Eng Educ Symp. Published online 2009:20-23.

9. Alhaddab TA, Alnatheer SA. Future scientists: How women’s and minorities’ math self-efficacy and science perception affect their STEM major selection. In: 2015 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference. IEEE; 2015:58-63. doi:10.1109/ISECon.2015.7119946

10. Roth S, Hisashima J. Diabetes, Pharmacy, and Me: Understanding Childhood Diabetes. Kindle and Amazon Direct Publishing. Jul 2022.

11. Roth S, Hisashima J. Asthma, Pharmacy, and Me: Understanding Childhood Asthma and How Pharmacists Can Help. Kindle and Amazon Direct Publishing. Aug 2023.

12. Roth S, Hisashima J, Medina-Gil C. Diabetes, Farmaceútica y Yo: Entendiendo la Diabetes Infantil (Spanish Edition). Kindle and Amazon Direct Publishing. Mar 2023.

13. Roth S, Hisashima J, Medina-Gil C. Asma, Farmaceútica y Yo: Entendiendo el Asma Infantil y de Que Manera Pueden Ayudar los Farmaceúticos (Spanish Edition). Kindle and Amazon Direct Publishing. Nov 2023.