Barriers to Expanding Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience Site Availability in an Experiential Education Consortium

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Objective. To describe the use of capacity ratios following the assignment of introductory pharmacy practice experiences (IPPEs) to a rising third-year pharmacy (P3) class. Methods. Practice experience availability for IPPEs was collected by means of preceptor response to requests. Following assignment of IPPEs to the rising P3 class, capacity ratios from the IPPEs available across the entire state and within each of 4 geographic zones were calculated. Capacity ratios for both community pharmacy and institutional pharmacy also were calculated. Results. The capacity ratio for IPPEs across the entire state was 2.11, which documents solvency. When the capacity ratios were calculated individually for community pharmacy and institutional pharmacy, solvency was also achieved. Likewise, IPPE capacity ratios were solvent in all 4 geographic zones. Conclusions. Capacity ratios are helpful in evaluating IPPE availability as they can be used to determine practice experience need in either type of practice experience or geographic zone.Keywords: experiential education, practice experience, capacity ratio, introductory pharmacy practice experiences, availability INTRODUCTIONThe Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education implemented new guidelines and requirements for introductory pharmacy practice experiences (IPPEs) in 2007. 1 This portion of the experiential education must comprise at least 5% of the curriculum or a minimum of 300 hours. Many colleges and schools of pharmacy have had to restructure their curriculum to meet these early experiential education experiences.2 Administration of vaccinations, 3 participation in medication reconciliation, 4 interaction with real patients in the classroom, 5 and direct patient contact in hospitals and clinics for case presentations 6 have been used or suggested as a means of meeting IPPE hours in preparation for advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs). Some colleges and schools of pharmacy have used a formalized practice experience in both community pharmacy and institutional pharmacy. Of the 2 mentioned, institutional pharmacy has historically been the most difficult to schedule because of the limited number of institutions available. The importance of academia working with the available institutions has been addressed in the literature.7-9 The number of pharmacy colleges and schools in the state of Tennessee expanded from 1 to 6 over a period of 4 years, creating competition for sites, especially for schools using full-time practice experiences in the IPPE program. Our college requires a fulltime commitment from students during IPPEs, including two 40-hour weeks for community IPPEs and the same for the institutional IPPEs. These 2 practice experiences take place within a calendar month. The University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy's IPPE program includes 370 hours from various courses throughout the curriculum (Table 1). The IPPE program includes 210 hours in part-time experiences and 160 hours in full-time IPPEs. The IPPE program is a compilation of various comp...

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

The Use of Capacity Ratios in Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences

Haswell

Byrd

Foster

et al. 2012

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“…Faculty members and administrators in EE programs will now be faced with new challenges, in addition to existing difficulties in student placement capacity created by dramatic growth in number of pharmacy schools and student enrollments in recent years. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Even though many schools have expanded and reorganized their EE programs, [9][10][11][12][13] further reorganization may be necessary to realign job responsibilities with the new emphasis on quality improvement, preceptor development, and interprofessional education. 14,15 Now is a good time take stock of all concerns facing EE programs so that appropriate changes can be made to meet new accreditation standards.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Qualitative Analysis of Common Concerns about Challenges Facing Pharmacy Experiential Education Programs

Danielson

Craddick

Eccles

et al. 2015

Objective. To qualitatively analyze free-text responses gathered as part of a previously published survey in order to systematically identify common concerns facing pharmacy experiential education (EE) programs. Methods. In 2011, EE directors at all 118 accredited pharmacy schools in the US were asked in a survey to describe the most pressing issues facing their programs. Investigators performed qualitative, thematic analysis of responses and compared results against demographic data (institution type, class size, number of practice sites, number and type of EE faculty member/staff). Expert and novice investigators identified common themes via an iterative process. To check validity, additional expert and novice reviewers independently coded responses. The Cohen kappa coefficient was calculated and showed good agreement between investigators and reviewers.Results. Seventy-eight responses were received (66% response rate) representing 75% of publicly funded institutions and 71% of schools with class sizes 51-150. Themes identified as common concerns were site capacity, workload/financial support, quality assurance, preceptor development, preceptor stipends, assessment, onboarding, and support/recognition from administration. Good agreement (mean percent agreement 93%, ƙ range50.59-0.92) was found between investigators and reviewers. Conclusion. Site capacity for student placements continues to be the foremost concern for many experiential education programs. New concerns about preceptor development and procedures for placing and orienting students at individual practice sites (ie, "onboarding") have emerged and must be addressed as new accreditation standards are implemented.

“…In fact, pharmacy staff workload and the shortage of pharmacists have been documented as impacting experiential preceptors. 8,9 Through the use of a Web-based patient care portfolio system, students demonstrated pharmaceutical care skills under the guidance of pharmacy practitioners. These activities were documented and transmitted to experiential faculty using our experiential education database to provide student/faculty interaction and ongoing monitoring of student progress by faculty members, and to stimulate active learning.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Web-based Portfolios for Pharmaceutical Care Plans During Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences

McDuffie

Sheffield

Miller

et al. 2010

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Objective. To implement and assess a Web-based patient care portfolio system for development of pharmaceutical care plans by students completing advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) throughout a statewide preceptor network. Design. Using a Web database, students in APPEs documented 6 patient cases within 5 disease state categories. Through discussion of the disease states and inclusion of patient information such as problems, desired outcomes, and interventions, a complete pharmaceutical care plan was developed for each patient. Assessment. Student interventions were compared by geographical regions to assess continuity of patient care activities by students. Additionally, students completed an evaluation of the portfolio course to provide feedback on the portfolio process. Students documented an average of 1.8 therapeutic interventions per patient case and documented interventions in all geographical regions. The majority of students indicated that the portfolio process improved their ability to develop a pharmaceutical care plan. Conclusion. The Web-based patient care portfolio process assisted with documentation of compliance with Accreditation Council of Pharmacy Education (ACPE) standards and College of Pharmacy Competency Statements. Students indicated the portfolio process was beneficial in developing skills needed for creating pharmaceutical care plans.