Assessment of research ethics education offerings of pharmacy master programs: a qualitative content analysis

The importance of research ethics (RE) training has led academic and funding institutions to require that students, trainees, and faculty obtain such training at various stages of their careers. Despite the increasing awareness of the value RE education offers, this training requirement is absent in Jordan. We aimed to assess RE education offerings of pharmacy master programs in Jordan and compare with the top-ranked pharmacy graduate programs globally. Therefore, a list of universities that offer research-based pharmacy master programs was created. Each program was evaluated for the inclusion of RE education. A qualitative content analysis approach based on inductive reasoning and latent analysis was followed to analyze the data. Results of the study showed a lack of appropriate RE education for graduate-level pharmacy programs in Jordan with only 40% of the programs partially discuss selected topics related to RE. Regarding pharmacy graduate programs globally, 10% offer a standalone RE course, 40% offer some discussions related to RE, another 10% do not offer RE education in any form, and the remaining 40% of the programs were difficult to assess due to lack of sufficient information available online. Based on the findings of this study, training in RE is tends to be lacking in pharmacy graduate programs in Jordan and globally, with a greater lack in Jordan than globally. There is a need to incorporate formal RE education into programs that do not offer this type of instruction. Programs that formally touch on some aspects of RE need to expand the scope of topics to include more RE-related themes. Integrating a standalone RE course into pharmacy graduate programs is highly encouraged.