(170) Impact of First Year Remediation Efforts Within a Professional Pharmacy Program

Objective : To determine the impact of a first-professional year (PY1) remediation plan.

Methods: A required remediation plan was implemented for the entering 2022 PY1 class for students with an exam average < 65% for any of the first three, 6-week integrated courses. Remediation included creating study guides, reviewing and retaking the final exam, reflecting on performance issues, and brainstorming methods of improvement. A retrospective analysis was conducted to compare students completing PY1 remediation to students meeting the threshold for PY1 remediation during the previous two academic years prior to implementation of remediation. The impact was assessed by comparing the percentage of PY1 students meeting the remediation threshold, average exam scores for the four PY1 and first two PY2 courses, and the rate of meeting the remediation threshold within the first two PY2 courses for students meeting the threshold for PY1 remediation.

Results: The percentage of students meeting the remediation threshold increased in the remediation group vs control (6% vs 3.75%; 7.6% vs 5.7%; 16% vs 11.9%) for three of the PY1 courses and decreased for one (6% vs 14.1%). Average exam scores followed a similar pattern with scores being lower in PY1 courses in the remediation group vs control; however, average exam scores for the two PY2 courses were higher in the remediation group vs control (66% vs 63% and 67% vs 63%). The rate of meeting the remediation threshold for the two PY2 courses was 37% for the remediation group and 59% for the control group.

Conclusions: The PY1 remediation plan demonstrated little advantage during PY1 but improved performance during PY2 fall courses.