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Abstract

Introduction: To make sure that unconscious bias is not woven throughout; many pharmacy programmes have started revising their curricula. However, only a small number of programmes have examined their evaluation tools to see if they contain any unconscious prejudice. This study was designed to investigate how race, ethnicity, age, and gender were employed in multiple-choice question banks at one pharmacy programme because there is currently little research on unconscious bias in evaluation tools.

Methods: Examinations from first-, second-, and third-year pharmacy curricula were included in a total of 27 pharmacy test banks. 3621 questions from the tests given in the 27 courses were reviewed and coded depending on factors such as race, ethnicity, age, and gender.

Results: Forty of the 3621 exam items that were examined mentioned race. Of those 40, it was found that only two (5%) of the questions, which were related to Whites, had any racial implications. There was no mention of transgender people and the gender breakdown was 56% male and 45% female. Seventy-two of the 426 questions focused on gender. 381 of the questions addressed age, but just 46 of them made it a prominent theme. None of the questions included any mention of ethnicity. None of the questions asked for self-identification of these factors.

Conclusions: Without a clear purpose, the constant inclusion of race in the creation of materials like question banks runs the risk of fostering racial bias. All pharmacy educators strive to produce pharmacists who graduate with strong academic backgrounds, clinical aptitude, and the cultural humility necessary to offer their clients high-quality treatment.