Pharmacy Professionalism Toolkit for Students and Faculty Provided by the APhA-ASP/AACP Committee on Student Professionalism

EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION
Best Practice Guidelines

Background
Experiential education, introductory (early) and advanced, encompasses approximately one-third of the pharmacy curriculum. During these experiences, students are exposed to a variety of environments, pharmacists, other healthcare providers, staff, and patient encounters. The impact of these experiences is multifold, involving most of the senses, thereby appealing to all learning styles (visual, auditory and adult).

The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education standards encourage colleges and schools to develop introductory (early) and advanced experiences that help foster professional development and a zeal for the profession. The standards are purposefully broad based so colleges and schools can develop programming suited for their culture and mission. Preparing quality and competent healthcare providers is the goal of every academic program.

Experiential Education Directors / Coordinators have the enormous responsibility of guiding and monitoring the professional development and behaviors of students. Additionally they are often asked to assist faculty and preceptors with identifying areas for continued professional development. Therefore many of the possible activities that will be described are for all individuals involved in experiential education. The goal of this section is to highlight some of the activities that have been developed and provide resources (references or institution contact information).

Planning Elements
The planning of experiential education programming is an institution-specific process dependent on curricular design. Introductory experiences typically involve activities that emphasize the utility of didactic material in daily practice. These activities also introduce students to different career opportunities and issues faced once in practice. Along with professional development, a key goal of these activities is to ensure students are prepared for advanced experiences. Advanced experiences are more student-driven; however each institution requires specific, key rotations during which general competencies are to be mastered. Guidance in the selection of experiences is essential to ensure continued successful professional development.

Although standardization of activities may not be possible across institutions, commonalities to consider during the planning stages include:

• Design orientation programming for students, faculty, and preceptors in a parallel fashion to ensure information is complementary
• Develop a process for disseminating information, whether new material, announcements, or accomplishments (e.g. campus events, news from professional organization, information highlighted in lay press, etc.) throughout the academic calendar to students, faculty, and preceptors
• Develop activities whereby faculty and preceptors can instill and reinforce professional elements
• Encourage and facilitate mentoring (student: student, student: faculty/preceptor and faculty/preceptor: faculty/preceptor)
• Identify and/or develop opportunities for professional interaction and development
  • Service learning
  • Involvement in pharmacy organizations (state and national)
  • Political advocacy
  • Post-graduate education opportunities or other career development programs
• Utilize committees, advisory boards/councils, or focus groups to ensure programming is sound and attaining institutional and societal goals and objectives

Timelines
Successful planning and implementation is dependent on the development of an accurate timeline. Appendix A is an example of an experiential education timeline outlining activities across all levels of the curriculum. Experiential Education Directors / Coordinators must develop timelines that best meet institutional and curricular needs. A challenge for many programs is maintaining communication and interaction with senior students enrolled in advanced experiences, Appendix B provides an example schedule coordinating activities between students, faculty and preceptors.

Promotion
A goal of all colleges and schools is to sustain a culture of professionalism (students, faculty, administrators, and staff). Maintenance of communication and interaction between students, faculty / preceptors, and Experiential Directors / Coordinators is essential to ensure continued engagement in the various experiential activities. Experiential Directors / Coordinators are challenged with finding appropriate and efficient methods for disseminating professional information. Some items require careful planning and promotion while others are more informative in nature. Development of a committee or task force may be prudent for activities that require planning, timelines and formal promotion.

Below are examples of promotional activities supported by Experiential Education:

• Use of email or web sites to disseminate materials, announcements, and notifications of professional opportunities as they occur during the academic calendar
• Publicly (college-, school- or university-wide) provide accolades to and/or announce the professional accomplishments of students, faculty, and preceptors
• Develop programming that promotes pride in the profession and professional socialization (e.g. American Pharmacists Month)
• Encourage and support opportunities for professional interaction and development
  • Participation in college/school/university-sponsored seminars
  • Attendance at professional meetings
  • Participation in career fairs
  • Attendance at award ceremonies

Evaluation
Evaluation is the cornerstone of every experiential education program. Experiential Education Directors / Coordinators have a tremendous responsibility ensuring and assisting with the maintenance of quality programming, faculty / preceptors, and practice sites. The sequencing of the experiential curriculum provides a unique opportunity to (potentially) evaluate the progression of student professional attitudes and behaviors longitudinally. Lastly evaluations can be used collectively to promote programmatic enhancements (continuous quality improvements).

Potential areas for evaluation include:

• Professional attitudes of students, faculty, and preceptors
• Professional behaviors of students, faculty, and preceptors
• Orientation and other training programs (students, faculty, and preceptors)
• Experiential program goals, objectives, and activities
  • Committees or task forces
  • Advisory board/council
  • Focus groups
• Site visits
  • Adequacy of site
  • Preceptor effectiveness
• Student attainment of curricular outcomes via annual proficiency exams, objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE), etc.

An assessment instrument to evaluate the professional behaviors of students has been developed and validated for use during experiential activities [Behavioral Professionalism Assessment Form – Experiential (BPAE)]. The validation of this instrument in the classroom setting is ongoing. Instruments have also been developed to ascertain professional attitudes, however none are yet validated. The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy is currently involved with several initiatives to facilitate Experiential Education Directors / Coordinator efforts including the development of standardized evaluations. Standardization would also assist the efforts of the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, possibly allowing for national comparisons.

Student Orientation
Faculty/Preceptor Orientation and Training Programs
Professional Portfolios
Mentor Programs
Service Learning
Community and Hospital Practicums (Introductory Experiences)
Classroom Workshops and/or Reflections
Inter-professional Experiences
Advanced Practicums
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