Best Practices for the Teaching and Assessing Population Health and Wellness.

Objective: To describe the concept of population health and wellness in the context of pharmacy education, curricular integration and assessment methods.

Findings: The definition of population health and wellness, different from public health, emphasizes the importance of environmental, biological, and social factors in determining population health outcomes. Various population health measures, including objective (mortality rates, life expectancy) and subjective (self-rated health, quality of life) indicators, can be used when teaching and assessing population-based care. Curricular frameworks and approaches, such as the Clinical Prevention and Population Health Curriculum Framework and the competency map approach, can be used to integrate population health concepts into pharmacy education. Didactic and experiential learning opportunities, skill assessments (e.g., immunizations, point-of-care testing, research projects), and co-curricular activities (e.g., health fairs, student-run clinics) can be used by educators to assess students' knowledge and skills related to population health.

Summary: While recognizing the significance of population health and wellness for pharmacists, there is a lack of established, comprehensive curricular approaches to effectively teach these concepts in pharmacy education. Skills assessments have standardized rubrics and should be used by all pharmacy educators. Other activities and assessments exist to evaluate students on research projects, service-learning opportunities, and health fairs and student-run clinics. There is a need for greater collaboration across pharmacy programs and health professions education initiatives to publish more examples and assessment tools of how educators ensure all graduates attain necessary population health competencies.