A Hospital-based Pharmacy Internship Program in Jordan

Abstract

Objective. Pre-graduate pharmacy training in Jordan faces the same challenges experienced worldwide in providing comprehensive, hands-on patient-centered training. We report the experience of developing a hospital-based pharmacy internship program in a comprehensive cancer care center in Jordan and its outcomes over a 10-year period.Methods. King Hussein Cancer Center developed a 2-year internship program for pharmacy students in Jordanian universities. The program included training in operational and clinical settings during the academic year and school holidays. In addition, the students completed rotation-related assignments and met weekly with the program director. During the rotations and at the end of the program, interns were asked to assess their level of satisfaction with the program and to comment on its content and structure.Results. From a pilot phase with three interns and a simple training structure, the 2-year program became more structured, accommodating 6 interns annually. Over the past 10 years, 51 students from four universities in Jordan have enrolled in the program, with 6 current interns, 34 graduates, and 11 withdrawals due to difficulties in schedules and time management. The program graduates reported Conclusion.A hospital-based pharmacy internship program is feasible and sustainable, with reported positive outcomes on the interns' academic performance and clinical and professional skills, despite the challenges of the highly demanding conditions on both the hospital and the students.

Experiential pharmacy education in trying times: Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

“…As for the third professional year (fifth year of the programme), two simultaneous practice courses known as Pharmacy Practice Experiences III and IV (PPE III and IV) are conducted within a tertiary hospital through a series of fifteen-week rotations designed to develop students' clinical skills in pharmacy practice (AbuBlan et al, 2019), enabling them to practice as part of the healthcare team, interact with patients and other healthcare professionals, and provide pharmacy services such as patient care, drug dispensing, drug information, and health promotion/disease prevention. Consequently, these clinical PPE courses allow senior pharmacy students to apply their academic knowledge and skills to ensure safe, effective, and economical drug therapy (Zellmer et al, 2013;Thomas et al, 2019;Boyce et al, 2020).…”

Exploring the experiences and expectations of pharmacist interns in large general hospitals in China: from the perspective of interns

“…Similar situations have happened in other Asian countries: although many hospital pharmacists have obtained a bachelor's degree of science or doctor's degree of pharmacy, they are considered unprepared to practice in most pharmacy-related settings [4,5]. Thus, HBPI turns out to be a crucial period of adaptation and preparation for pharmacy students [4]. During the internship, pharmacy students as participants gain a concrete understanding of the hospital pharmacy profession and at the same time enhance their professional knowledge and skills.…”

“…However, the current school-based pharmacy education in China is biased toward basic knowledge such as medicinal chemistry and pharmacology, and there is a great lack of training in clinical practice skills, making the hospital pharmacists unable to meet the demand for pharmacy services with their existing professional knowledge, skills, or competency [3]. Similar situations have happened in other Asian countries: although many hospital pharmacists have obtained a bachelor's degree of science or doctor's degree of pharmacy, they are considered unprepared to practice in most pharmacy-related settings [4,5]. Thus, HBPI turns out to be a crucial period of adaptation and preparation for pharmacy students [4].…”

Establishing competency based internship program through participatory action research in a private pharmacy college in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia

“…This continues to be an issue, but the implementation of assignments to support intern development in cohort 2 proved to be a valuable intervention, giving students some exposure to cognitive pharmacist tasks. The use of assignments, and active preceptor involvement has been discussed as an effective way of building a successful internship by Carl et al, 2014 , Rath et al, 2019 , and Abu Blan et al 2019 .…”