Perceptions of Pharmacy Faculty Regarding Factors Contributing to Declining First-Time NAPLEX Pass Rates

Objective: Identify perceptions from pharmacy faculty across the Academy concerning factors that may be influencing NAPLEX first-time pass rates to highlight potential focused areas of further research based on common experiences.

Methods: An anonymous 43-item Qualtrics™ questionnaire was distributed to faculty members from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. Questions were predominantly 5-point Likert scale items (5=very large impact) and encompassed six domains: pharmacy school factors, COVID-19 educational modifications, testing factors, standardized testing, applicant preparedness, and student factors. Demographic data as well as perceptions were reported with means and standard deviations.

Results: In total 600 responses were analyzed. Respondents were predominantly female (66%) and white (78%). Most had a Doctor of Pharmacy degree, residency training, and were practicing as a licensed pharmacist within the Southern and Midwestern US. Respondents indicated that the decline in NAPLEX first-time pass rates is a moderate to large problem (mean 3.64, standard deviation [SD] 0.891), and the top potential influencing factors include student quality (mean 3.99, SD 0.876), student's critical thinking (mean 3.90, SD 0.947), study habits (mean 3.74, SD 0.920), and admission standards (mean 3.67, SD 1.082).

Conclusions: The top 4 factors indicated by respondents as impacting NAPLEX first-time pass rates were related to the student quality. This result highlights the importance of exploring issues related to pharmacy admissions and the need to implement effective strategies to support an increasing number of potentially less prepared pharmacy students.