An investigation of learning motivation for pharmaceutical laws among pharmacy students

Abstract

This study sought to clarify the relationship between the learning motivation of pharmacy students to study pharmaceutical laws and their occupations of interest. A questionnaire was administered to fourth-year students in the six-year and four-year programs at the Kitasato University School of Pharmacy. A factor analysis used 246 valid responses, and factor scores calculated for each respondent were used for cluster analysis. A quantitative textual analysis was also conducted using data from a free-response question on the occupations that respondents were interested in at the time of the investigation. The results suggested that students in the four-year program had lower learning motivation than students in the six-year program did and that they did not feel the need to acquire knowledge on pharmaceutical laws. It was suggested that, among students in the six-year program, students interested in becoming a pharmacist at a hospital or a community pharmacy had higher learning motivation. Furthermore, it was suggested that among students in the four-year program, those interested in research and development jobs did not feel the need to acquire knowledge on pharmaceutical laws.