The Integration, Perceptions, and Implementation of Legislative Advocacy Within U.S Colleges and Schools of Pharmacy

Abstract

Objective. To assess: 1) current practices of colleges and schools of pharmacy pertaining to teaching legislative advocacy, 2) engagement of staff, faculty, postgraduates, students, and administrators at colleges and schools of pharmacy in legislative advocacy partnerships and activities, and 3) future goals for legislative advocacy involvement by academic pharmacy institutions.

Methods. An electronic survey was distributed to Deans of colleges and schools of pharmacy across the U.S. via a list of emails from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. Respondents completed 53 questions to identify involvement, barriers, and relative importance related to legislative advocacy. Responses were evaluated using descriptive statistics.

Results. The survey accrued responses from 48 of 143 (33%) colleges and schools of pharmacy. Of the respondents, 16% required a course on advocacy and approximately 50% offered an advocacy elective. A majority of institutions highly ranked (> 7 on a scale of 1-10) their institution’s involvement and importance of legislative advocacy in external collaboration (involvement: 58.8%; importance: 75.8%). A majority of institutions highly ranked the importance of faculty, staff, and postgraduate roles in advocacy (60%); however, involvement was not ranked as strongly (42.3%). Fifty percent of institutions plan to expand involvement in legislative advocacy.

Conclusion. Colleges and schools of pharmacy in the U.S. highly ranked the importance of legislative advocacy; many feel their involvement is strong with plans to expand. Moving forward, curricula and resource allocation should be reviewed to diminish the dissonance between importance and implementation of legislative advocacy components.