Integrating and Assessing Entrustable Professional Activities in PharmD Curricula.

Objectives: The 2022 Curriculum Outcomes and Entrustable Professional Activities (COEPA) include an updated set of entrustable professional activities (EPAs) for PharmD graduates. To assist pharmacy educators with the integration and assessment of EPAs, the objective of this work was to review and synthesize 1) approaches to integrate EPAs in health professions curricula 2) strategies for EPA-related assessments and entrustment in health professions curricula and 3) challenges and research needs for integrating EPAs in assessment frameworks in PharmD curricula FINDINGS: A literature review resulted in 114 articles identified as having relevance with 33 articles specific to pharmacy education. There are multiple components of an effective EPA integration and assessment plan, including administrative leadership, determination of programmatic EPAs with comprehensive descriptions, selection of an entrustment-supervision scale, identification of EPA-based assessments, EPA mapping, data management, and training and development.

The Palliative Arts: Envisioning a New Paradigm in Palliative Care.

A growing body of evidence supports the effectiveness of arts-based interventions in nurturing human connection, healing, and reflection-for patients living with illness, their families, and their health care communities. Thus, we propose that these interventions, what we call the Palliative Arts-just as much as science-should be systematically integrated in clinical education, practice, research, wellness, leadership, and advocacy to impact person-centered outcomes. Our interprofessional team describes a variety of arts-based programming that its authors are leading to highlight the breadth of existing Palliative Arts work and point to future horizons for its integration in health care education and clinical settings.

Development and validation of a performance-based palliative care assessment tool for student pharmacists.

Introduction: Integration of hospice and palliative care principles within pharmacy curricula is essential to fill the need of pharmacist training in this growing specialty. A formalized assessment tool to evaluate skill development does not exist for student pharmacists specific to palliative care. The objective of this study was to develop a valid and reliable, palliative care-focused, performance-based assessment tool for student pharmacists.

Antibiotic stewardship in Indian palliative care: a single-center retrospective study.

Objective: Characterize antibiotic prescribing behaviors at an Indian palliative care center after the initiation of the Antibiotic Order Form (AOF): an antibiotic stewardship program involving a paper form to track antibiotic use and to provide prescription guidelines.

Design: Retrospective chart review.

Setting: Trivandrum Institute of Palliative Sciences (TIPS) is a palliative care organization in Kerala, India.

Finalizing the Work Related to the Curriculum Outcomes and Example Objectives and Entrustable Professional Activities (COEPA) Document: The Report of the 2022-2023 Academic Affairs Standing Committee.

The 2022-2023 Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) was charged to (1) complete the Center for the Advancement of Pharmacy Education Outcomes and Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) revisions (now renamed as COEPA - Curriculum Outcomes and Entrustable Professional Activities) after receiving feedback at the 2022 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Annual Meeting; (2) offer guidance on how the revised COEPA education outcomes and EPA statements should be used by member institutions, faculty, preceptor, and students; (3) guide input into the ongoing revision of the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) standards for the Doctor of Pharmacy program. The published report of the 2021-2022 AAC outlines the work of the Committee through the spring of 2022. This 2022-2023 AAC report focuses on the work related to finalizing the COEPA educational outcomes, EPAs, preamble, and glossary and formally receiving approval from the AACP Board of Directors.