StrengthsFinder^® signature themes of talent in pharmacy residents at four midwestern pharmacy schools

Background and purpose StrengthsFinder^® is a widely-used assessment that can be used to help student pharmacists discover their talents (i.e., signature themes [STs]) and develop their leadership skills. The assessment has also been used in pharmacy residents, but the prevalence of various STs in that group has not been compared to those in student pharmacists. Educational activity and setting Residents from four midwestern pharmacy institutions completed StrengthsFinder^® 2.0 and received their top five STs. STs were organized and examined by domains (executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking). StrengthsFinder^® data on student pharmacists were obtained from a previously published study. The distribution of the themes and domains was compared between residents and student pharmacists. Findings Responses from 31 residency program cohorts, including 290 pharmacy residents from a pool of 304 (95.4%) possible respondents, were included in the study. The learner ST was more frequently reported in the top five in pharmacy residents versus student pharmacists (42.8% versus 35.5%, p = 0.022). The woo and communication STs were also more frequently reported in the top five, while the consistency ST was reported less frequently in the top five in pharmacy residents versus student pharmacists (p < 0.05). The executing and relationship building domains had the highest average number of STs (1.58 and 1.56, respectively). Discussion and summary The ST profile of pharmacy residents at residency programs affiliated with four midwestern schools of pharmacy is generally similar to that of pharmacy graduates. However, several STs were more or less prevalent in pharmacy residents. Recognition of these differences may assist residency program directors in marketing and design of programs and ranking of candidates.