(1134) Empowering and Educating the Next Generation of Pharmacists Through Children’s Books: A Quality Assurance Initiative

Objectives: The objective of this research is to internally measure the efficacy and impact of the pharmacy children’s book, “All Aboard The Rx-Express!” through a quality assurance initiative.

Methods: This pharmacy-focused children’s book was read to elementary-aged youth at a rural, Pennsylvania elementary school in the Spring of 2022. A brief, optional, anonymous pre-post survey was administered to the youth before and after the reading to measure the book’s impact on elementary-aged children’s perceptions and knowledge of the pharmacy profession. Descriptive statistics, chi squared analysis, independent samples t-tests, and one sample proportions tests were used to analyze survey responses.

Results: 191 students participated in the pre-survey to assess baseline knowledge before the book was read. 185 students answered the post-survey. Baseline demographics were assessed before and after reading the story since pre-post results were collected in aggregate rather than linked to individual respondents. Using t-tests comparing pre to post data, results showed a positive increase in all questions that asked about pharmacy or pharmacists. Questions asked only after the book was read assessed students’ opinions on the book itself. Results showed students had favorable perceptions of the book using one sample proportions tests.

Conclusions: Early interventions such as this can increase elementary-age youth’s awareness and knowledge of the roles of pharmacists. Future work in early intervention will be needed to increase interest in the profession and applications to pharmacy schools.