Date of Award
1-1-2019
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences
First Advisor
Alicia S. Bouldin
Second Advisor
Jennifer Adams
School
University of Mississippi
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
Mentorship is an important component of personal and professional development for student pharmacists. This research measured the value of mentorship in this population examined potential influencing factors and the likelihood to participate in a mentoring relationship and identified preferences for the mentoring relationship. Data collection involved survey self-report of student pharmacists (P1-P4) at four participating universities. An adapted 29-item Mentoring Functions Scale (MFS) was used to measure value with functions divided into career and psychosocial categories. The highest ranked mentoring functions were psychosocial with an average score of 9 or greater on the 10-point scale. Perceived personal relevance measured using the Revised Personal Involvement Inventory (RPII) was “high” on average and was found to significantly influence mentorship value along with age year in school and experience with mentorship. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) with twelve pairs of “mentoring program descriptions” was used to identify preferences for the mentoring relationship. This analysis revealed students prefer unassigned long-term mentoring relationships with in-person interactions that take place once per month and focus on professional versus personal development although this difference was minimal. Overall student pharmacists place value on both the career-oriented and psychosocial aspects of mentoring. Future research and refinement of the scale is needed to examine specific aspects and approaches mentorship approaches most desired.
Recommended Citation
Crumby, Ashley Stubblefield, "Valuation of mentorship in pharmacy education and the impact of perceived personal relevance" (2019). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1740.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1740