By: Krisy Thornby, PharmD, BCPS and Jeff Cain, EdD, MS
Any educator who has heard or said, “our students don’t read” is unlikely to be surprised by reading declines among college graduates, who reported reading an average of 14.6 books in 2021 compared with 21.1 per year between 2002 and 2016. Reports similarly describe challenges with students’ willingness and ability to engage with lengthy and complex texts. For pharmacy faculty already facing pressures related to variable academic preparedness, diverse learner needs, and poor academic performance, concerns about reading add another layer of complexity.
These concerns have merit, yet saying that students “don’t read” oversimplifies the issue. Pharmacy education requires learners to navigate large amounts of texts, process complex information, and demonstrate competence through formative and summative assessments. Yet, how learners engage with this information has changed. The internet, social media, digital learning tools, audiobooks and generative artificial intelligence (AI) offer efficient ways to query, summarize, reorganize, and explain content without necessarily engaging with the original source in its entirety. Limited time and workload consistently emerge as barriers to reading across health professions literature.1,2,3 Students also report preferring condensed materials, point-of-care (POC) resources, and supplemental resources over textbooks to help them focus on key concepts.1,2 The appeal makes sense, as modern learners value a return on investment of their time. They seek speed, personal choice, convenience, and may not always see the benefits of longer texts (e.g. books, in-depth articles). Newer tools might make information more accessible and efficient, but they may also pose risks to deep engagement and the cognitive effort needed to make connections across materials.
At the same time, we should acknowledge that reading every source deeply from start to finish is not realistic nor even reflective of real-world pharmacy practice. In some situations, reading quickly and selectively can be advantageous when balancing personal and professional responsibilities. A more useful question is how can we develop learners who value reading, create environments that support it, and help them recognize when deeper engagement is required?
Reading with Purpose
The literature describes different levels of reading comprehension ranging from surface-level to deeper approaches.4 Surface-level reading involves scanning, identifying key information, or memorizing discrete facts. These skills have clear value as pharmacists routinely locate information in texts or POC tools, review medication orders, clinical notes, and navigate guidelines to answer questions. Deep reading, however, requires greater metacognition and sustained engagement to distinguish important information from supporting details, connect new content with prior knowledge, critically appraise evidence, and determine how it should be applied. Examples where these skills are essential include interpreting primary literature, conducting scholarly projects, and reading for continuing professional development. Graduates need to be able to do both and perhaps most importantly, recognize the level of engagement a task requires. Table 1 offers practical strategies faculty can use to address the barriers and preferences of modern learners.
Table 1. Practical Strategies to Support Reading in Pharmacy Education
| Strategy | Application for Pharmacy Education |
| Developing Reading Skills | |
| Create an environment that supports reading and attention | Set aside time for limited digital distractions and task switching for students to engage with text individually or in groups |
| Model expert reading behaviors | Use active learning or think-alouds to model what pharmacists notice, question, skip, and connect with prior knowledge |
| Scaffold reading complexity when applicable | Increase length and complexity of assigned texts (e.g. cases, passages) as learners progress |
| Share effective reading strategies5 | Encourage durable learning strategies such as concept mapping, practice testing, creating mnemonics, retrieval practice (i.e. explaining or writing what they know from memory) |
| Specify expected level of reading engagement | Clarify how to approach different texts (e.g. clinical trials, books, chapters, guidelines) and what they should be able to do with the information |
| Supporting Motivation to Read | |
| Connect reading to real world relevance3 | Explain how a text relates to a case, current event, controversy or medication-related decision |
| Prioritize essential reading1,3 | Clearly distinguish required reading from supplemental reading to balance depth and efficiency |
| Encourage reading beyond pharmacy texts | Promote reading literacy by encouraging reading fiction or nonfiction texts through advising, mentoring, or optional course materials |
| Align reading with assessment3 | Communicate how assigned reading is assessed (e.g. low- or high-stake exams, participation, verbal, discussion boards) |
| Offer some flexibility in reading | Allow students to select topics of interest that align with learning objectives and assessment activities |
Shifting the Conversation
As educators, it’s tempting to look back on our own training with nostalgia and assume our reading habits should define how students learn today. However, those experiences reflect a different educational context from the one students now navigate. Rather than focusing on what students are not doing, we can make reading expectations visible, helping them develop how and what they read. We can also teach them to discern when a quick answer is sufficient and when to slow down and engage more deeply.
If students are reading differently, should we be teaching reading differently too?
References:
- Das J, Safarudin R, Thornton JD, Williams L. Textbook reading habits and perceptions among PharmD students in an integrated curriculum: A mixed-methods analysis. Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2026;18(2):102489. doi:10.1016/j.cptl.2025.102489
- Ibrahim O, Hickey Z, Templeton C, et al. A study of medical student reading behaviors and tendencies throughout the mobile era. Educ Prim Care. 2018;29(5):310-311. doi:10.1080/14739879.2018.1495106
- Shaffer K, Colbert-Getz J. Best Practices for Increasing Reading Compliance in Undergraduate Medical Education. Acad Med. 2017;92(7):1059. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000001729.
- de-la-Peña C, Luque-Rojas MJ. Levels of Reading Comprehension in Higher Education: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Front Psychol. 2021;12:712901. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.712901
- Urrizola A, Santiago R, Arbea L. Learning techniques that medical students use for long-term retention: A cross-sectional analysis. Med Teach. 2023;45(4):412-418. doi:10.1080/0142159X.2022.2137016
ChatGPT 5.6 from Open AI was used for suggestions to improve writing clarity and concision.
Author Bio(s):
Krisy Thornby, PharmD, BCPS is a professor of pharmacy practice in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Administration at Palm Beach Atlantic University, Gregory School of Pharmacy. Krisy’s educational scholarship interests include teaching and learning, curriculum and assessment design, learner and faculty well-being, and contemporary issues in higher education. In her spare time, she enjoys being simple with her family, running, reading, and cheering on her favorite sports teams.
Jeff Cain, EdD, MS is professor and vice-chair in the Department of Pharmacy Practice & Science at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. Jeff’s educational scholarship interests include innovative teaching, digital media, and contemporary issues in higher education. In his free time, he is a girl-dad, an extreme trail ultramarathoner, a thoroughbred racehorse owner/enthusiast, and is president of For Those Who Would, a 501(c)(3) charity in the adventure and endurance racing communities.
Pulses is a scholarly blog supported by a team of pharmacy education scholars
