Analysis of Willingness of Pharmacy Students toward Taking Vital Signs Using a Text Mining Technique

Abstract

It is important for pharmacists in a medical team to take vital signs before intervention. However, there are few studies regarding the willingness for taking vital signs among pharmacy students. In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey for 1^st-, 4^th-, and 6^th-year students at the Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, to evaluate their willingness toward taking vital signs. The question was “As a pharmacist, do you want to be able to take vital signs?” Students selected one of the following options: “yes,” “no,” or “neither.” They also wrote the reason for their selection. This was analyzed using text mining, and correspondence analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between “the combination of school grade and selected answer” and keywords. We grouped similar combinations of frequency of keywords using cluster analysis and selected the keywords that significantly developed in a provided cluster. Consequently, typical keywords provided by the 1^st- and 4^th-year students who selected “yes” were “patients,” “emergency,” and “clinical condition;” however, those provided by the 6^th-year students who selected “yes” were “homecare,” “side effect,” and “discovery.” On the other hand, the typical keywords provided by the 1^st-, 4^th-, and 6^th-year students who selected “no” or “neither” were“ specialist,” “pharmacist,” and “work.” Therefore, the recognition of taking vital signs by pharmacists may be different among 1^st-, 4^th-, and 6^th-year students. To develop education related to taking vital signs for pharmacy students, further detailed surveys regarding various factors that affect students' recognition of taking vital signs is required.