A Six-Semester Integrated Pharmacy Practice Course Based on Entrustable Professional Activities

Abstract

Objective. To describe the design and outcomes of a longitudinal integrated pharmacy course Methods. The Applications of Pharmacy Practice is a one-credit course that was built into the revised curriculum at Howard University College of Pharmacy. This course is offered during the first six semesters and meets once every three weeks for a total of five sessions per semester. Each session integrates curricular material from all courses running during a given semester into an individual, case-based assessment and a team activity. Team activities are evaluated using rubrics developed based upon the Entrustable Professional Activities for Pharmacy Graduates. Results. First-year students were enrolled into the inaugural course in Fall 2018 and Spring 2019, and the majority of students achieved final course grades that fell between 70% and 89% at the conclusion of each semester. Students reported that the course was helpful in developing their critical thinking skills and helped them keep up with semester material. Although the majority of students believed the addition of the course to the curriculum was beneficial, some also felt the course expectations to keep up with all course material was too high. Conclusion. Applications of Pharmacy Practice appeared to be beneficial to students and faculty, allowing integration of semester material. This integration of material reduced compartmentalization of knowledge between clinical, administrative, and pharmaceutical sciences content within a semester. Future studies investigating the impact of this course on overall student success and standardized assessments such as the NAPLEX and/or Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment (PCOA) should be explored.