(121) Role of Laboratory Courses in Determining Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience Readiness Across Schools/Colleges of Pharmacy

Objective : To evaluate the role of skills laboratory courses in determining Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) readiness in United States Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) programs.

Methods: An electronic survey was emailed to the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Laboratory Instructors Special Interest Group. Survey items included demographic information about the PharmD program, APPE-readiness implementation, and APPE-readiness components at each institution. Additional survey items evaluated which assessments were remediable and methods for remediation. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results: Thirty-three participants completed the survey, with the majority (78.8%) from a 4-year traditional program. Most participants were implementing (72.7%) or creating (18.2%) a formalized APPE-readiness plan. Most participants reported that APPE-readiness was determined based on skills and knowledge assessments within courses. At least 50% of participants reported using the following assessments in APPE-readiness plans: communication/patient counseling (100%), collection of patient history (90%), SOAP note/documentation (73%), provider interaction (70%), medication reconciliation (60%), calculations (80%), Top 200/300 drugs (73%), drug information (67%), inpatient (63%) and outpatient (70%) order fulfillment, and Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process assessments (50%). The majority of assessments were incorporated into laboratory courses and were remediable, with most participants indicating an average of 10% or less of students requiring remediation. Most programs permitted one or more repeat attempts on these assessments, and most reported that remediation attempts were graded as pass/fail.

Conclusions: There are similarities in skills and knowledge assessments for PharmD APPE-readiness plans, and many of these assessments are incorporated into laboratory courses. This can help guide other schools or colleges of pharmacy that wish to develop or modify their own APPE-readiness plan in the future.