Currents in Pharmacy Teaching & Learning

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: As healthcare providers increasingly focus on emerging issues of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in patient care, less is known about the training in postgraduate year one (PGY1) pharmacy residency on DEI clinical documentation considerations. This pilot project explored whether training, discussion and self-reflection within a peer review activity promoted DEI self-awareness in clinical documentation through a centralized curriculum of a multisite PGY1. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: Building upon an established peer review of clinical documentation activity, PGY1 pharmacy residents practicing in ambulatory care settings received training on DEI considerations and completed small and large group discussions, a post-activity mixed methods survey with self-reflection prompts, and a three-month follow-up survey...

Graduating student pharmacists who are practice-ready is an essential responsibility of pharmacy programs and heavily emphasized by Accreditation Council of Pharmacy Education (ACPE), pharmacy education's accrediting body. Although several studies have examined students' readiness to engage in advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPE), few studies examine graduating students' readiness to practice. The objective of this study was to examine national trends in graduating pharmacy students' and preceptors' perceptions of students' pharmacy practice preparedness across a six-year time frame (2016-2021) and trends in graduating students' overall impressions of their program and the pharmacy profession across the same time period...

INTRODUCTION: In the last decade, significant changes in pharmaceutical sciences have influenced the delivery of pharmacy education in Pharmacy programs. Integrated curriculum is one such method considered. We aimed to describe the perceived level of integrated curriculum among PharmD programs in the US. METHODS: From October 26th, 2021, until January 18th, 2022, faculty administrators across 138 US pharmacy colleges were surveyed. Data was collected regarding each program's perceived curriculum integration and assessment integration...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The 1 + X certificate system, introduced in China in 2019, integrates academic credentials with vocational skill certificates to meet the heightened demand for skilled talents in the growing economy. This study aims to innovate and evaluate the vocational pharmaceutical education system under the 1 + X certificate framework, specifically addressing the gap between theoretical education and workplace requirements. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective observational approach analyzed 490 pharmacy students over two academic years...

OBJECTIVES: ChatGPT is an innovative artificial intelligence designed to enhance human activities and serve as a potent tool for information retrieval. This study aimed to evaluate the performance and limitation of ChatGPT on fourth-year pharmacy student examination. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on February 2023 at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Chiang Mai University, Thailand. The exam contained 16 multiple-choice questions and 2 short-answer questions, focusing on classification and medical management of shock and electrolyte disorders...

INTRODUCTION: The objective of the study was to assess if improvement of the learner experience could be achieved through the use of instructional design strategies in current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) training. This is a novel application in a topic that is known to be boring but is critical to ensuring patient safety. METHODS: An experimental randomized controlled repeated measures cross-over design was utilized in a sample of pharmacy students to determine the effect of an intervention training strategy (which utilized a mix of strategies including weeding, signaling, use of multimedia, and optimized space and type) on the learner experience (Evaluation, Overall Satisfaction, Perceived Knowledge, and Future Recommendation) compared with a control...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Effective communication skills are essential for all pharmacists, regardless of practice setting. An implicit need in pharmacy education is to emphasize direct application of these skills to future healthcare practice prior to experiential rotations. The aim of this article is to describe how we revised a required first professional year (P1) doctor of pharmacy course to achieve two main goals: 1) improve the course relevance by connecting content to real-world skills; and 2) qualify all pharmacy students at our institution as certified National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) lifestyle coaches upon course completion...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Development of competencies related to care of older adults is necessary in pharmacy education. Skills laboratories as an essential part of the curriculum represent an important setting to teach geriatrics. The purpose of this research was to describe geriatrics cases in skills/simulation activities of an undergraduate pharmacy program. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: A retrospective review of one academic year of skills laboratories from the pharmacy program at the Faculty of Pharmacy of University of Montreal was performed...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: To investigate final-year student pharmacists' experiences of a new module for North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination® (NAPLEX®) preparation at one college of pharmacy in the United States. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: All student pharmacists enrolled in a new Spring 2023 module for NAPLEX preparation (n = 118) were invited to complete an electronic questionnaire and participate in a semi-structured interview...

BACKGROUND: The development and implementation of Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) readiness assessments has been an area of increased interest to the academy since the publication of the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) standards in 2016. This scoping literature review aims to provide an updated summary of current APPE readiness assessment practices among ACPE-accredited institutions in the United States (US). METHODS: A literature search was conducted between 2022 and 2024 using the terms "APPE student readiness," "APPE readiness assessment," "APPE preparedness," "APPE student preparedness," "pharmacy" AND "readiness assessment", "pharmacy" AND "practice readiness," and "pharmacy" AND "student practice readiness" in Pubmed and Embase...

INTRODUCTION: Pharmacy residency programs traditionally prioritize clinical skills development. However, non-clinical competencies, such as leadership, conducting education, and innovation, are now emerging as pivotal factors in propelling pharmacists toward excellence in practice. The extent to which these non-clinical skills are effectively fostered by residency programs remains unclear. This study aims to explore how residency programs propel the development of crucial non-clinical competencies such as leadership, conducting education, and innovation...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: This study was designed to determine whether a virtual, self-care activity improved knowledge and confidence in third-year student pharmacists. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: Third-year student pharmacists (n = 386) from three institutions participated in the virtual self-care simulation during their respective practice laboratory course. A pre- and post-assessment collected 10 knowledge and five confidence questions, self-reported on 0-100 scale, mapped to learning outcomes and pharmacy standards...

INTRODUCTION: Limited information is available regarding whether malleable factors such as critical thinking skills are associated with academic performance among underrepresented minority pharmacy students. This study assessed the relationship between critical thinking skills and grade point average (GPA) among pharmacy students attending a Historically Black College. METHODS: A cross sectional study design was utilized to evaluate the association between student's GPA and critical thinking skills...

BACKGROUND: Systematic ways to teach health advocacy, an educational outcome for pharmacy graduates, is lacking. We developed a workshop to facilitate understanding and application of a novel structured framework for health advocacy and explored how pharmacy students enacted opportunities for health advocacy during subsequent outpatient experiential training. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: A two-hour workshop was introduced for year 2 students in 2019. Its content was organized around a health advocacy framework...

INTRODUCTION: Student readiness for Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs) has not been explicitly defined in literature or standards. Readiness for APPEs is a programmatic requirement of all schools and colleges of pharmacy (schools), leaving schools to determine their own assessments of APPE readiness. Current literature provides no consensus on the definition of APPE readiness nor the assessments or benchmarks used to evaluate APPE readiness. Schools have an opportunity to improve efforts to identify students at risk for poor APPE performance and provide early intervention...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: To describe one institution's approach to transformation of high-stakes objective structure clinical examinations (OSCEs) from norm-referenced to criterion-referenced standards setting and to evaluate the impact of these changes on OSCE performance and pass rates. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING: The OSCE writing team at the college selected a modified Angoff method appropriate for high-stakes assessments to replace the two standard deviation method previously used...

BACKGROUND: Effective communication with patients and colleagues is key to a pharmacist's ability to provide effective person-centered care. Neurodivergent patients face many barriers when interacting with health professionals; increased awareness and understanding are therefore paramount to the pharmacist's role. This paper describes an innovative teaching partnership between a school of pharmacy and an inclusive theater company which aims to develop awareness and skills of undergraduate pharmacy students in relation to communicating with patients with autism and/or learning disabilities...

INTRODUCTION: Though various barriers to productive writing habits exist in academia, scholarship is a critical part of faculty expectations. One barrier that has not been well addressed in the literature is the presence and interference of a negative inner critic, an internal voice or dialogue that criticizes work, halts creativity, and paralyzes writing. COMMENTARY: The purpose of this commentary is to describe the limited evidence-base and anecdotal strategies shown to support increased writing productivity by acknowledging and navigating the inner critic...

OBJECTIVES: To describe the creation of podcasts for instructional delivery and evaluate strengths and areas for improvement in a post-graduate training (PGT) elective course. METHODS: After creating a podcast series, students in the PGT elective from Spring 2021 to Fall 2022 listened to the series then completed a reflection based on five open-ended questions that provoked their thoughts and feelings about use of podcasts as a method of delivering information and teaching...

INTRODUCTION: Promoting diversity among faculty, administrators, and librarians in schools and colleges of pharmacy (SCOP) would be beneficial for the recruitment and retention of students from diverse backgrounds. Graduating such diverse pharmacists could assist in reducing healthcare disparities. Promoting diversity requires a climate that is inclusive of people from all backgrounds. The goal of this study was to examine the working environment of historically marginalized faculty, administrators, and librarians within pharmacy education...