Preceptor and resident perceptions of entrustable professional activities for postgraduate pharmacy training

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

“…Consistent with the medical education literature, the findings of this study broadly show that written preceptor feedback is being provided across all EPAs and comprehensively included positive, neutral, and negative feedback. 7,8,9 Further, while feedback varied in meeting the 'optimal feedback' definitions recommended by scholars in the learning sciences, key opportunities identified for preceptor development include the provision of directional, goal-oriented skill-specific feedback. This study is a first-step in highlighting a potential area of opportunity to enhance preceptor-provided written feedback on EPAs in pharmacy curricula.…”

“…In pharmacy education, literature to date broadly includes the development of EPA statements, connecting EPA statements to programmatic and accreditation requirements, defining the level of entrustment necessary for practice readiness, validation of EPA assessment tools, and pharmacy preceptor and resident perceptions on EPAs for postgraduate training. 1,[6][7][8][9] A J P E A c c e p t e d…”

Mapping the postgraduate year one pharmacy accreditation standards to the core entrustable professional activities

“…During a pilot project using the EPA model within the University of Minnesota PGY1 Pharmacy Residency Program, preceptors felt reaching a level four or five appropriately designated that a resident achieved the educational objective for residency most of the time . However, some Leadership and Management and Teaching, Education, and Dissemination of Knowledge objectives were not as similarly aligned (eg, preceptors felt that the resident achieved the objective, but were not as clearly able to give a level four or five) . As more pharmacy schools and residency programs transition to the EPA framework, further utilization will be highly informative.…”

“…However, some of the less readily observable educational objectives (eg, practice management, professionalism, etc.) proved to be more difficult for use in the EPA model . To our knowledge, no other pharmacy residency programs have published on how to implement EPAs, as much of the national focus is on schools of pharmacy.…”

Entrustable Professional Activities: Focus on Assessment Methods

“…On the other hand, EPAs constitute task lists required in particular contexts that can be readily observed. According to Moon et al (2018), EPAs are developed for "tasks or responsibilities that are observable, executable, and measurable in process and outcome" (p. 1597a).…”