Description of a Longitudinal Interprofessional Education Plan and Outcomes From an Inaugural Student Cohort.

Objective: To describe a longitudinal interprofessional education (IPE) plan at 1 school of pharmacy including inaugural student cohort outcomes.

Methods: Standards 2016 prompted the creation of an IPE task force at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy to develop and implement an IPE plan consisting of outcome-based goals, a deliberate design, and a formalized assessment strategy (an approach that inspired national consensus guidance from the Health Professions Accreditors Collaborative). Beginning with the 2022 graduating class, required interprofessional learning activities were embedded longitudinally across a 4-year Doctor of Pharmacy program and included classroom-, simulation-, and clinical-based IPE activities.

Cultivating patient-centered care skills through engagement in difficult conversations.

Background And Purpose: Appropriately engaging with patients around sensitive, challenging, or uncomfortable topics, often termed "difficult conversations," is a facet of patient-centered care. Development of such skills prior to practice often occurs in the hidden curriculum. Instructors implemented and evaluated a longitudinal simulation-based module aimed at advancing students' understanding and abilities to use patient-centered care skills to navigate difficult conversations within the formal curriculum.

A survey of pharmacists in integrated care: Benefits, barriers, and facilitators of integration.

Introduction: While models for pharmacist integration within primary care exist, less is known about their integration into primary care practices with already-embedded behavioral health. An exploratory survey was conducted to characterize examples of pharmacist integration into primary care systems providing dual behavioral and medical care.

Method: An electronic survey distributed through email listservs of four national organizations assessed pharmacists' background, training, practice setting and roles, and benefits and challenges of integration.

Addressing the Challenges of Providing Accommodations for Pharmacy Students With Disabilities Across Learning Environments.

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education Standards 2016, schools and colleges are required to provide reasonable disability-related accommodations for eligible students enrolled in a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program. Strategies for providing reasonable and effective accommodations in didactic classrooms have been well defined. In contrast, PharmD programs often grapple with supporting learners requiring disability-related accommodations during skills-based laboratory and experiential learning performance assessments.

Expert Consensus to Finalize a Universal Evaluator Rubric to Assess Pharmacy Students' Patient Communication Skills.

To use an expert consensus-building process to develop a rubric used by multiple evaluator types to assess Doctor of Pharmacy students' patient communication skills. Faculty and staff members from six schools and colleges of pharmacy collaborated on a multi-step expert consensus-building process to create the final version of a communication rubric. First, faculty and patient content experts evaluated each item in the rubric for its relevance, criticality, and global comprehensiveness using a five-point Likert scale (0=not at all, 4=to a high extent).

Development of a scale to determine student self-efficacy in performing key pharmacists' patient care skills.

Background: The Pharmacists' Patient Care Process (PPCP) was developed to describe a consistent process in which pharmacists in any setting provide patient care. Faculty at a midwestern university developed and refined an assessment tool which provides an indirect approach to measure student confidence in performing skills essential to the PPCP. The objective of this paper is to conduct a stepwise factor analysis to refine the PPCP survey.

A state-level needs analysis of community pharmacy point-of-care testing.

Background: The uptake of point-of-care testing (POCT) within community pharmacies at state and national levels is largely unknown despite the endorsement and advocacy efforts of pharmacy organizations, recent legislative advances, and numerous models for successful POCT implementation within individual pharmacy sites.

Objectives: The study aimed to describe the current landscape of POCT in Wisconsin community pharmacies and identify opportunities for the advancement of testing and the key factors influencing the realization of these opportunities.

Methods: A survey was administered over the telephone to pharmacy managers of community pharmacies in Wisconsin.

Let External Stakeholders Be Your Guide to Curricular Revision.

Schools and colleges of pharmacy undertake curriculum revisions for a variety of reasons ranging from the reactionary (eg, responding to changes in practice patterns, accreditation standards) to the proactive (eg, striving for innovation and excellence). Continuous quality improvement processes and published curriculum models, both described in this commentary, should be used to guide revision processes. Equally important is engaging the expertise of external stakeholders.

Pharmacy and behavioral health: How can we collaborate in primary care?

Developing working knowledge of integrated care models can guide pharmacists in operationalizing comprehensive medication management (CMM) alongside behavioral health services for holistic primary care integration. Over the last decade forces from both within and outside the pharmacy profession have culminated in trends toward an oversupply of pharmacists in the United States. In response, advocates of the profession have called for the materialization of long-awaited advancements in innovative, team-based, medication management roles.

Application of Absorb-Do-Connect learning framework to foster experiential, practice, and career-ready learners.

Introduction: As educators, we have the opportunity to produce experiential-ready, practice-ready, and career-ready practitioners. Student attitudes and values influence how learned knowledge and skills will be enacted, and therefore are key determinants of career-readiness. However, attitudes and values can be challenging to see and measure in learners.

Development of a Holistic Assessment Plan to Evaluate a Four-Semester Laboratory Course Series.

To implement a holistic assessment plan to evaluate the impact of a four-semester laboratory course series entitled Integrated Pharmacotherapy Skills on students' readiness to begin advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) following separation of the laboratory component from the Pharmacotherapy lecture component. Faculty prospectively selected and employed a variety of course assessment methods including student self- and preceptor evaluation during APPEs, course evaluations, and a student confidence survey to evaluate student readiness for APPEs and ensure a quality learning experience for students. APPE students' self-perceived confidence to perform skills increased after completion of the redesigned curriculum and after experiencing two APPE rotations.

Development and Application of a Stepwise Assessment Process for Rational Redesign of Sequential Skills-Based Courses.

To develop and apply a stepwise process to assess achievement of course learning objectives related to advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) preparedness and inform redesign of sequential skills-based courses. Four steps comprised the assessment and redesign process: (1) identify skills critical for APPE preparedness; (2) utilize focus groups and course evaluations to determine student competence in skill performance; (3) apply course mapping to identify course deficits contributing to suboptimal skill performance; and (4) initiate course redesign to target exposed deficits. Focus group participants perceived students were least prepared for skills within the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education's pre-APPE core domains of Identification and Assessment of Drug-related Problems and General Communication Abilities.

Pharmacist medication reviews to improve safety monitoring in primary care patients.

Objective: Patients prescribed psychotropic medications within primary care are at risk of suboptimal monitoring. It is unknown whether pharmacists can improve medication safety through targeted monitoring of at risk populations. Access Community Health Centers implemented a quality improvement pilot project that included pharmacists on an integrated care team to provide medication reviews for patients.

Impact of a Paper vs Virtual Simulated Patient Case on Student-Perceived Confidence and Engagement.

Objective: To evaluate online case simulation vs a paper case on student confidence and engagement.

Design: Students enrolled in a pharmacotherapy laboratory course completed a patient case scenario as a component of an osteoarthritis laboratory module. Two laboratory sections used a paper case (n=53); three sections used an online virtual case simulation (n=81).

Simulated medication therapy management activities in a pharmacotherapy laboratory course.

Objective: To measure the impact of medication therapy management (MTM) learning activities on students' confidence and intention to provide MTM using the Theory of Planned Behavior.

Design: An MTM curriculum combining lecture instruction and active-learning strategies was incorporated into a required pharmacotherapy laboratory course.

Assessment: A validated survey instrument was developed to evaluate student confidence and intent to engage in MTM services using the domains comprising the Theory of Planned Behavior.