Description
Background: Pharmacists practice within complex legal, regulatory, and ethical frameworks; however, PharmD curricula often offer limited direct exposure to regulatory decision-making in authentic practice settings. Observation of a live Board of Pharmacy meeting may enhance students understanding of professional accountability, systems-level oversight, and the regulatory context of pharmacy practice. Objective: To examine changes in first-year PharmD students perceived regulatory understanding, ethical reasoning, perceptions of professional roles, and advocacy-related beliefs following attendance at a live Mississippi Board of Pharmacy meeting. Methods: This exploratory mixed-methods study included first-year PharmD students enrolled in a required course at the University of Mississippi. Students attended the March 2026 Mississippi Board of Pharmacy meeting following a Board-led prebriefing and then participated in a faculty-led debriefing. Eligible students were invited to complete pre- and post-intervention surveys, pre- and post-vignette assessments, and a post-intervention written reflection. Survey domains included professional identity, procedural justice, self-efficacy, and advocacy-related beliefs grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior. Vignette assessments were developed using a structured blueprinting process to evaluate regulatory understanding, ethical reasoning, systems thinking, and judgments about the appropriateness and proportionality of Board actions. Results: Of 79 eligible students, 77 completed the pre-intervention survey and 78 completed the post-intervention survey. 59 provided matched pre/post data. Paired analyses demonstrated significant increases in procedural justice, t(58) = -4.95, p < .001, and perceived behavioral control, t(58) = -3.72, p < .001. Mean procedural justice scores increased from 3.95 (SD = 0.68) pre-intervention to 4.41 (SD = 0.59) post-intervention. Internal consistency for Theory of Planned Behavior constructs ranged from acceptable to good across time points (0.64, 0.79). Analyses of vignette-based assessments against expert rankings and of qualitative reflections using thematic analysis are ongoing at time of submission. Conclusions: Observation of a live Board of Pharmacy meeting may strengthen student pharmacists perceptions of procedural fairness and their confidence in engaging in advocacy-related behaviors, even when broader measures of professional identity and general self-efficacy remain unchanged. These preliminary findings support authentic regulatory exposure as a promising approach to strengthening regulatory literacy and professional citizenship in pharmacy education.
Publication Info
2026.