Prioritizing Technology in Pharmacy Education: A Document Analysis of Strategic Plans

The COVID-19 pandemic has required many pharmacy programs to increase their utilization of technology or shift the course of delivery entirely online. Delivery in this setting has exposed areas in the use of technology where pharmacy programs need to improve (such as staff and student training). This study performed a document analysis of strategic plans to identify technology-related strategies and where gaps in planning currently exist. Accredited pharmacy programs in Canada and the USA were included for analysis. A total of 77 strategic plans were identified. Strategic plans were searched for the phrases: "tech", "online", "distance" and "e-learning" to identify technology-related statements. Statements relating to technology in education were coded for (1) the prioritized “action” and (2) the objective or “goal” of this strategy. Quantitative analysis of these codes revealed that the “action” was most frequently to introduce or improve technology (54.4%), and the “goal” most frequently related to enhancing teaching/course delivery/learning (34.2%). Strategic plans appeared to frequently focus on the technology itself, with little consideration for the human aspect of operating technology or readiness of programs to embrace technology. Moving forward, strategic priorities with respect to technology should be refocused towards system readiness and account for resources necessary for target user upskilling and acceptance.