Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The current study compared African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Caucasian Americans for their intentions to enroll in a state organ donor registry and to talk with family about organ donation. The overall results showed that attitudes and subjective norms from the Theory of Planned Behavior were significantly related to intention to enroll while perceived behavioral control was not. Attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control were significantly related to intention to talk with family. The differences among ethnic groups were small, but the relationship between attitudes and intention to enroll was stronger for Asian Americans and weaker for African Americans than for Caucasian Americans. The implications of these and other findings are discussed for organ donation campaigns.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This presentation examines the challenges and possibilities of guiding teacher candidates toward a deeper understanding of professional standards for personal growth and teacher licensure, including accountability for PK-12 student learning.

Publication Type: Abstract
Abstract: Objectives: The new ACPE standards stipulate that interprofessional teamwork, cultural competency, and health disparities be addressed in pharmacy curriculum. Prior to initiating an interprofessional service-learning program, we examined pharmacy students’ baseline perceptions of interprofessional teamwork, empathy toward patients, and intentions to work with underserved populations. Pharmacy students were compared to other health professional students.
Methods: Students from pharmacy, medicine, dentistry, nursing, and physician’s assistant programs completed anonymous surveys at the beginning of the Fall 2006 semester. Students were asked about their knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy toward interprofessional work, and intentions for working in interprofessional teams and with underserved populations. They also completed the student version of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy.
Results: 499 students completed the survey, including 92 pharmacy students in their third professional year. Pharmacy students reported lower self-efficacy toward interprofessional collaboration (compared to medical, dental, and physician assistant students), less willingness to work in interprofessional teams (compared to medical students), and less empathy (compared to medical, nursing, and physician assistant students). They also reported less willingness to work with underserved populations or to provide services to those who cannot pay for them compared to all other students. All comparisons were statistically significant at p<.01 based on Tukey pairwise comparisons.
Implications: Pharmacy students may be less aware of the role of their profession in interprofessional teams and with underserved populations than other health professional students. Providing opportunities to engage in interprofessional collaboration and provide care to underserved patients may foster positive self-efficacy and intentions toward these types of work.

Publication Type: Abstract
Abstract: The South University School of Pharmacy embedded eight quarters of service-learning in its Doctor of Pharmacy’s early/intermediate professional practice experience program to introduce students to service and altruism as part of a pharmacy professional’s defining ethos, and to provide students leadership opportunities as mentors. Purpose: This assessment project’s focus is twofold: 1) assess the eight-quarter service-learning experience contributions to the development of student ability outcomes mapped to the Early and Intermediate Professional Practice Experiences as conceived in the school’s initial curricular plan, and 2) establish a baseline against which to assess forthcoming changes in the service-learning experience. Methods: The Class of 2008 was surveyed during Quarter Seven using a two-part, thirty-one item survey that elicited student perception of service-learning and introductory practice experience contributions to their development of PharmD curricular outcomes mapped to those experiences. Results: The work in progress indicates, not unexpectedly, that students perceive the intermediate professional practice experiences in quarter five (2, 4-week rotations) as more directly linked to their professional development than the service learning activity. Full results from the closed and open-ended response survey sections will be reported, as well as the model for on-going assessment of this curricular requirement. Implications: Recommendations for internal and external audiences will be presented to help programs with multi-term service-learning activity embedded in their experiential curricula consider programmatic adjustments that help students see service as valuable in their professional education, and to identify specific developmental gains they make via curricular-linked service.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: How do statutory protections against pregnancy discrimination directly affect employees who breastfeed, the infertile, and those who wish to control fertility? This paper examines the limits of the coverage federal courts have been willing to provide employees under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (PDA). In the 25 years since Congress recognized pregnancy as a form of gender discrimination, federal courts have wrestled with the permissible treatment of pregnant workers. But what are the parameters of this statute? Are male employees discriminated against if they do not have identical opportunities as female colleagues? Are employers and their insurance companies responsible for infertility treatments, if infertility is the absence of pregnancy? Does the avoidance of pregnancy through the use of birth control constitute a “related condition” warranting coverage? Are employees who breastfeed protected by statutory language that considers “any discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, and any related condition” sex discrimination? Is breastfeeding “a related condition of pregnancy”? Based on a data set of published opinions of the federal courts surrounding the application and definition of this statute, this paper examines how the federal courts have answered these questions and consequently interpreted the scope of the PDA.