An Exploration of Preceptor-Provided Written Feedback on Entrustable Professional Activities During Early Practice Experiences

A Review of Entrustable Professional Activities in Pharmacy Education

“…19 A significant amount of work has been completed around the development and validation of the 15 core EPAs for new pharmacy graduates, published by the AACP in 2017, however there is limited published evidence about the integration of these EPAs in the clinical setting to support workplace-based learning. 10 Further guidance has been provided around the development of EPA frameworks with researchers developing and validating a scoring rubric with descriptive anchors to evaluate EPAs. 8 Taylor and colleagues developed the EQual rubric as a reliable measure for the quality and structure of EPAs and provided guidance for directing revisions.…”

“…Four articles were descriptive in nature and seven were analytical studies. 2,10,12,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Many articles detail the challenges of implementation of EPAs in the workplace. 2,29,30 In the context of medical education, van Loon and colleagues suggest that successful implementation of EPAs should include both the learners (medical residents) and program directors having a clear understanding of the resident's progress in training, workplace creativity to fulfil any remaining needs for training and the training program being flexible.…”

“…12 In a retrospective review Sjoquist and colleagues investigated and evaluated openended feedback from preceptors to student pharmacists regarding their performance on EPAs during a pharmacy practice placement. 10 The authors concluded that subjective, preceptor provided feedback can assist in identifying the strengths and challenges influencing student pharmacists' progression and understanding the learners ability during a practice experience. 10 A limitation in both these studies is the EPA statements were developed for their respective institutions for pharmacy students thus differed from those published by the AACP for pharmacy graduates.…”

“…10 The authors concluded that subjective, preceptor provided feedback can assist in identifying the strengths and challenges influencing student pharmacists' progression and understanding the learners ability during a practice experience. 10 A limitation in both these studies is the EPA statements were developed for their respective institutions for pharmacy students thus differed from those published by the AACP for pharmacy graduates. 10,12 Currently, literature in pharmacy education has yet to fully explore the implementation experience and effectiveness of EPAs for workplace learning for pharmacy graduates.…”

“…4,8,9 The concept of EPAs is relatively recent in pharmacy education; literature to date has focused on the development of EPA statements, mapping EPAs to program and accreditation requirements, validation of EPA assessment tools and pharmacy preceptors and learners perceptions and experiences of using EPAs in the workplace setting. [10][11][12] There is a clear need for further evaluation of EPAs that have been implemented in the pharmacy practice setting including consideration of their feasibility, practicality and whether this form of assessment is appropriate to support student learning.…”