(147) Utilization of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy Toolkit to Inform Curricular Assessment and Revision

Objective : Assess curricular content in the didactic Pharm.D. curriculum using the 2019 American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Toolkit as part of a curricular assessment and revision process.

Methods: Instructors of pharmacotherapy content rated the topics they teach according to the 3-tier system defined in the toolkit as part of the curricular assessment process. Instructor ratings were compared to the suggested tier in the toolkit to identify areas of incongruity. The Curriculum Committee (CC) reviewed this data to generate recommendations for improving curricular efficiency.

Results: Comparison to the ACCP Toolkit revealed that the school’s curriculum is teaching 55% of topics to the suggested tier. Of the remaining 45% of topics, more were taught at a higher tier (29% one tier higher, and 3% two tiers higher) than at a lower tier than recommended (11% one tier below and 2% two tiers below). The program taught 34% of tier 3 topics that are not recommended for required curricula. The most common topic areas where curricular overload was identified included immunology, toxicology, critical care, and psychiatry. Based on this curricular assessment data and CC recommendations, the curriculum removed tier 3 topics, reduced course credits and topic hours, repurposed hours to ensure that tier 1 topics are taught sufficiently, and increased time to apply the Pharmacists' Patient Care Process within pharmacotherapy modules.

Conclusions: Using the ACCP Toolkit in the curricular assessment process was effective in identifying areas of curricular overload upon which the CC made recommendations that informed curricular revision.