To help pharmacy students improve their skills, South University’s Dr. James Fetterman and others worked to improve pharmacy curriculum by adding in appropriate introductory pharmacy practice experiences. The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) “Standards 2016” emphasize the need for pharmacy students to demonstrate “practice readiness” and “team readiness” upon graduation. Introductory pharmacy practice experiences (IPPEs) are required throughout the pharmacy curriculum and should be sequenced to intentionally develop pharmacy skills in a variety of practice settings to assure readiness for advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs). The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) developed a core list of entrustable professional activities (EPAs) essential for pharmacy graduates to perform without direct supervision once they have attained sufficient competence.
The Southeastern Pharmacy Experiential Education Consortium (SPEEC) is comprised of experiential education faculty and staff from six colleges and schools of pharmacy in Alabama and Georgia, including South University. The mission of SPEEC is to promote the advancement of pharmacy experiential education through synchronization of procedures, standardization of preceptor training, and participation in scholarly activities.
SPEEC formed focus groups and gave out surveys to participants to determine what activities would best help pharmacy students. Survey consensus led to a community IPPE curricula with 12 required EPAs and 54 tasks (40 required and 14 suggested).
This process provided a successful mechanism for preceptor collaboration with experiential programs to build consensus on community IPPE curricula redesigned around EPAs and supporting tasks. A unified IPPE curriculum adds value to colleges and schools of pharmacy with shared preceptors by improving continuity of experience, expectations, and evaluation of student learners and allows for targeted regional preceptor development.
The full study and its results referenced can be found here.
