Discussion
The concentrated learning experiences at WFBH and CMC were designed to help students strengthen their clinical and professional skills in preparation for post-graduate training and advanced pharmacy practice roles. Students reported significant improvement in all skills self-assessed. These findings complement prior research showcasing that pharmacy school and health-system partnerships facilitate participant growth and multidisciplinary engagement.7-8,10
Students were able to meet program goals through the unique experiences offered during the concentrated learning program. Previous studies highlighted similar opportunities with networking, publication, research, and presentations contributing to the satisfaction of students.6-7 Additionally, the consistency of the programs allowed the students to focus on rotations and deliver advanced patient care as opposed to repeated onboarding and becoming acquainted with new facilities.7-8,10 Our findings show a single skill development (medical team engagement) resulted in a significant difference in median skill development between programs. These results may be skewed due to fewer students at CMC. Importantly, students from this single university received similar perceived program benefits, across the board, at two separate healthcare systems. This is promising news for schools or colleges dependent on unaffiliated facilities for experiential education.
A strength of this study was the assessment of students’ perceived clinical and professional skills both pre- and post-completion of the concentrated learning experience. In this regard, the results reveal students’ perceptions of the development of their professional and clinical skills during the APPE year, which is currently lacking in the literature. Experiential education is an ideal setting to employ self-reflection to support development in learning and allow students to witness their improvement in practice skills.
There are limitations to the study. Students without hospital experience may not easily adjust to the new environment and therefore may report a poorer baseline experience. Also, there was no assessment of how the preceptor evaluated the student and whether that may have led to a poorly perceived experience by the student. Thus, a student may be more likely to report a negative experience because of a poor grade received on rotation. Lastly, there was a difference in the number of participants at each site which may have led to variance between results.
Future analysis could include correlations of students’ GPA, prior pharmacy experience, and grade on rotation to show the potential impact of students’ perceived skill development. Likewise, further expansion of the current program to offer more IPPE and APPE partnerships could be explored. A prior study showed improved APPE performance for students assigned to the same facility during IPPE rotations, as compared to students assigned to separate facilities.11 Lastly, a comparison of licensure pass rates in students participating in a concentrated program versus nonparticipants could yield interesting findings.