An investigation of academic resilience, resilience, and empathy in pharmacy students: Implications for pharmacy education

Background: Resilience supports pharmacists and students in thriving in challenging healthcare and academic environments. Empathy is necessary to provide patient-centred care. Knowledge of how these attributes influence pharmacy students is limited, and correlations between academic resilience, empathy, and academic success continue to be explored. Methods: This study explores the relationships between levels of academic resilience, resilience, and empathy with the academic achievements of pharmacy students at a Malaysian university. Participants were pharmacy students enrolled from 2020/2021 to 2022/2023. Academic resilience was assessed using the Academic-Pharmacy-Resilience-Scale-16, resilience through the Brief-Resilience-Scale, and empathy with the Kiersma-Chen Empathy-Scale. Scores were related to students’ academic grades. Both descriptive and inferential statistical methods were utilised to analyse associations among variables. Results: Responses were received from 359 students. The levels of resilience of students were deemed to be moderate. Small, statistically significant variations were found in academic resilience scores across cohorts, resilience scores, and empathy scores in relation to gender. Academic resilience showed a correlation to academic grades. Conclusion: Academic resilience positively correlated with academic success and was positively influenced by work experience. Strengthening students’ resilience in pharmacy education may support their academic achievement, particularly during times of change like the COVID-19 pandemic.