ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to describe the types of organizations pharmacy students are involved in and students' level of involvement. Responses were obtained from 351 pharmacy students representing eight U.S. colleges of pharmacy. On average, students were involved in 1.69 organizations (SD = 1.54, range 0 to 9, median = 1). Only 23% of students (n = 81) were not involved in an organization during the 1995–96 school year and over two-thirds of students were involved in one to three organizations. Of the organizations students were most involved with (up to a maximum of three evaluated), 87% of memberships held were in pharmacy organizations, 9% in campus organizations, and 4% in other organizations. Students were most involved in national pharmacy organizations (e.g., APhA-ASP, ASHP, and NARD) and pharmacy fraternities (43% and 24%, respectively). ANCOVA results indicate that the number of organizations students are involved in differs by year of graduation, with those two years away from graduation (1997) involved in more organizations. The extracurricular involvement inventory (EII) was used to measure level of students' organizational involvement for those students who held memberships in at least one organization. Students were classified into low, moderate, and high levels of involvement based upon their overall EII score. No significant relationship was found between level of involvement and gender, year of graduation, marital status, or self-reported grade-point average. This study indicates that students do actively participate in student organizations, represented predominantly by pharmacy organizations.