Traversing the Threshold: A Phenomenological Inquiry on Student Professionalism in Pharmacy Education
Keywords:
liminal state, pharmacy education, phenomenology, professionalismAbstract
Development of student professionalism in both academic and experiential learning programs has been one of the focal points in pharmacy education. Evidently, its quantitative assessment has received considerable attention in pharmacy literature while few articles dealt on describing it as an experienced phenomenon. The purpose of this phenomenological inquiry is to capture undergraduate pharmacy students' lived experiences of professionalism while in the liminal state. Participants' accounts of learning experiences from academic and practice environments were obtained during individual face-to-face interviews which focused on essence questions on professional knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Data were subjected to phenomenological reduction using the Colaizzi's method and the themes of understanding, embracing, and embodying expectations emerged. Significant findings of this study can assist curriculum experts and clinical preceptors in designing professional courses and experiential learning tasks, respectively, with emphasis on scaffolding student professionalism.
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