Mental health: “it is a subject where most pharmacists [or pharmacy] students have no more knowledge than the general public”

Abstract

Background

Mental health is a global health priority, and pharmacists have a valuable role in improving outcomes in all sectors of practice. This study sought to explore pharmacy students’ views on teaching and learning of mental health and future practice.

Methods

An anonymous online questionnaire was distributed to pharmacy students in the UK and Ireland in February 2020 via the Qualtrics™ platform and 232 students responded. The questionnaire was originally intended to explore the provision of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) teaching and the quantitative analysis has been previously reported. Students were invited to comment on their views about MHFA. The open-ended question: ‘Do you have any other comments about mental health teaching and learning in the MPharm degree?’ was also included. The rich free-text data were analysed, and themes identified.

Results

Three major themes were identified: (i) Mental Health is important; (ii) Pharmacist roles and (iii) So, Teach me. A fourth theme, Stigma, crosscut all the themes.

Conclusions

Pharmacy students appreciate the importance of mental health care. The majority recognise the role of the pharmacist in providing person-centred care and the potential to enhance this role. Students are keen to learn more, and acquire the confidence and skills to contribute in the future. They would like an integrated approach and have more opportunities to learn from patients. Addressing stigma is an important consideration for educators.

Keywords:

• Mental health
• MPharm
• Undergraduate
• Pharmacy curriculum
• Pharmacy education

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge students who participated in the survey and staff who circulated the survey. They acknowledge the essential contributions of R. Edwards, S. Farid, E. Garner, M. Mahroof, S. Rasul, D. Keating, H. Zaman, J. Scott, I. Maidment, to the previous study that these data were collected from.

Author contributions

Convened team—HG. Analysed the qualitative data—HG HM JS. Interpreted the results—HG HM JS. Drafted the manuscript—HG, HM, JS. Critically reviewed the manuscript—HM, JS. Approved the final version—HG, HM, JS. All authors agreed to be accountable for all parts of this work..

Funding

No funding was provided for this study. Dr Gorton’s time to supervise student projects was included as part of her job role at the University of Huddersfield.

Declarations

Competing interests

The authors are either staff or students at a University in the UK or Ireland. HG is an associate editor of JoPPP. There are no other conflicts of interest to declare.

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