A multipreceptor approach to ambulatory care topic discussions.

Objective: To assess the impact of a multipreceptor approach to facilitating topic discussions on students' knowledge and confidence in clinical decision-making during an ambulatory care advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs).

Design: Faculty members with relevant expertise and experience facilitated discussions with fourth-year doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students regarding 7 ambulatory care topics. A student self-assessment survey and knowledge-assessment instrument was administered before and after discussions.

Assessment: Students' examination scores increased significantly from 59.1% ± 13.9% at baseline to 76.5% ± 12.6% at the end of the 5-week experience (p<0.001). The majority of participants were comfortable making therapeutic decisions regarding medication use as it related to all discussion topics except heart failure.

Conclusions: Participation in topic discussions led by faculty members with expertise and experience for each ambulatory care topic was associated with a significant improvement in knowledge-assessment scores.