Curricular Considerations for Preparing Student Pharmacists to Prescribe Hormonal Contraception

Abstract

Starting in 2014, the pharmacist's role in the United States (US) has expanded to include prescribing hormonal contraception (HC), and is currently addressed with policy in 14 states and Washington D.C.. Training and education requirements for this expanded scope of practice vary between states and are changing rapidly. The objective of this review is to examine how student pharmacists are taught to provide contraceptive care, specifically for prescribing ongoing HC and emergency contraception, and to identify potential gaps in current US pharmacy curricula. Despite steady adoption into community pharmacy practice, currently there is sparse literature assessing educational methods used to teach contraceptive care. This review offers recommendations to promote consistent and comprehensive student pharmacist education in providing contraceptive care across institutions, regardless of state policy status.

Pharmacist-Prescribed Hormonal Contraception: Does Didactic Hormonal Contraception Education Affect Student Pharmacist Perceptions of This Professional Activity?

“…Rim et al conducted a recent survey assessing the contraceptive curricula taught in pharmacy programs nationwide and found that 68% of programs reported feeling their HC education was adequate, but 70% also expressed an interest in access to a standardized HC curricula [21]. The successful implementation of pharmacist-prescribed HC, including in states that allow new graduates to prescribe HC without additional training outside of the PharmD curriculum, demonstrates that modern PharmD curricula are adequate in preparing students for this task [22]. However, when evaluating student preparation for this activity, there is sparse data evaluating different teaching methodologies or competency outcomes [22].…”

“…The successful implementation of pharmacist-prescribed HC, including in states that allow new graduates to prescribe HC without additional training outside of the PharmD curriculum, demonstrates that modern PharmD curricula are adequate in preparing students for this task [22]. However, when evaluating student preparation for this activity, there is sparse data evaluating different teaching methodologies or competency outcomes [22]. Additional research is needed to identify highly effective teaching methods that prepare students for this activity, ideally reporting data that do not rely exclusively on subject self-perception.…”

Impact of a case-based activity on student pharmacists' confidence in contraceptive prescribing at a school of pharmacy in the United States

“…This manuscript reports the results on an evaluation of the impact of this casebased activity on student confidence in selecting an appropriate contraceptive product for a patient, while considering applicable state-specific rules and regulations regarding the scope of pharmacistprescribed contraception. There are few published studies evaluating teaching modalities for content on hormonal contraception within pharmacy education; thus, this manuscript fills a gap in the literature (Stone et al, 2022).…”