Student perceptions of the value they bring to APPE sites.

Introduction: Partner institutions invest much time and effort into educating pharmacy students, and ideally students should be viewed as valuable to those sites. Prior studies have demonstrated the perceptions that preceptors and administrators have about the value of students at their sites. However, students' perceptions of their own value at practice sites have not been described.

Exploratory Analysis of Entrustable Professional Activities as a Performance Measure During Early Pharmacy Practice Experiences.

To examine entrustable professional activities (EPAs) as an assessment tool for student pharmacists completing early practice experiences. Students completed a 2-month practice experience upon conclusion of their first year. Student performance on EPAs was assessed by preceptors and students at the midpoint and conclusion of the experience using a scale that ranged from dependent (1.

Preceptor confidence and engagement in providing leadership activities to students in advanced pharmacy practice experiences.

Introduction: Preceptor perceptions about providing leadership activities during the fourth year of the doctor of pharmacy curriculum were examined.

Methods: An anonymous questionnaire was sent electronically to 610 preceptors of fourth year doctor of pharmacy students in August 2015 inquiring about confidence in leadership ability, extent of student engagement in leadership activities, and preceptor support needed. Differences based on leadership background, such as formal training, were examined using independent t-test.

Preceptor perceptions of fourth year student pharmacists' abilities regarding patient counseling on therapeutic lifestyle changes.

Objective: Advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) provide an opportunity for students to showcase health and wellness knowledge and skills attained during didactic education. The primary objective of this study was to assess preceptor perceptions of how well pharmacy year four (PY4) students are prepared to provide guideline-based and patient-specific therapeutic lifestyle change (TLC) counseling at onset of an APPE rotation. A secondary objective included assessment of differences in counseling abilities if the preceptor considered the student normal weight versus overweight or obese, or if they were a known smoker.

Introduction of a continuing professional development tool for preceptors: lessons learned.

Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) guidelines state that preceptors should "have a systematic, self-directed approach to their own continuing professional development (CPD)." The objective of this study was to encourage preceptors to take advantage of the ACPE CPD resources and implement the concept of CPD (reflect, plan, act, evaluate, record) as a framework for guiding individual preceptor's continuing development as educators and to determine their opinion regarding the usefulness, effectiveness, and obstacles to implementation of this approach. A total of 3713 preceptors from the participating schools were encouraged to undergo CPD training and invited to respond to a series of questions.

Characteristics of experiential education web sites of US colleges and schools of pharmacy.

Objective: To evaluate the characteristics of experiential education Web sites of colleges and schools of pharmacy in the United States.

Methods: The experiential education Web pages of 124 US colleges and schools of pharmacy were reviewed for office or program name, practice experience management software, experiential education newsletter, practice experience manual, preceptor development programs, new preceptor application processes, and interactive Web site interfaces.

Results: The term "office of experiential education" was used by 27.

Use of SMART learning objectives to introduce continuing professional development into the pharmacy curriculum.

Objective: To determine whether a 2-year continuing professional development (CPD) training program improved first-year (P1) and second-year (P2) pharmacy students' ability to write SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timed) learning objectives.

Design: First-year students completed live or online CPD training, including creating portfolios and writing SMART objectives prior to their summer introductory pharmacy practice experience (IPPE). In year 2, P1 and P2 students were included.