Student participation in extra curricula education opportunities

Background: Pharmacy Education South London (PESL) was formed in 2014, with funding from Health Education England South London, bringing together multiple providers of training, including Local Practice Forums (LPFs) and The Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE). These meetings are voluntary and open to all, including students and support staff, with multiple events running on the same topic. South London contains two schools of pharmacy. This study aimed to investigate the motivators for students’ uptake of extra curricula learning activities. Method: A questionnaire based evaluation form was designed, based on a previous LPF evaluation form, using tick box questions to establish motivators for attendance and how learning will be applied into practice, plus free text for the least and most positive aspects of the session and an outcome based learning plan. Ethical approval was given for this study by a Higher Education Institute ethics committee. During the period of April to December 2015, 5 topics were held; 3 workshops run by CPPE and 2 lecture based topics. These were publicised through the LPF pages and details were emailed directly to pharmacy students in their 3rd and 4th year in one School of Pharmacy (n=200) through the researcher. Only two years were emailed due to venue capacities. The evaluation form was given out for completion at the end of each event. The responses per question were transposed into Microsoft Excel for collation of question totals to enable data evaluation. Results: During the survey period 607 participants attended a session across South London. 13.7% (n=83) of these were students. 49 attended a lecture (9 in April and 40 in December) with 34 attending a workshop (2 in May, 5 in July and 27 in October). 20.5% (n=17) were male and 79.5% (n=66) female. 72.3% (n=60) stated they attended due to an interesting topic, with 100% stating the topic was relevant to current or future role. 36.1% (n=30) said they would complete a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) cycle after the session, with 38.6% (n=32) saying that attending the session would help them to proactively deal with patients. Conclusion: When given the opportunity, students are keen to engage. Attendance is affected by holiday and exam periods, therefore the timings of events need to be planned to enhance student attendance Students are aware of CPD and keeping up to date to support their current and future practice. Engagement can be increased by publicising the learning outcomes/opportunities to be gained for the event and ensuring topics are relevant to practice. Promoting supplementary learning activities to students will enhance the quality of the future workforce and ensure effective practice based learning