Abstract and Introduction
Abstract
Objectives: To educate pharmacists on the shortage of quality preceptors and the benefits received from precepting; present insights from successful preceptors and offer guidance to current and prospective preceptors; and encourage pharmacists to become preceptors and mentor aspiring pharmacy professionals.
Setting: Advanced experiential settings for Nova Southeastern, Ohio Northern, and Creighton Universities.
Practice Descriptions: Hospital, community, and outpatient clinic settings.
Practice Innovation: Successful incorporation of student pharmacists and the experiential process into pharmacy practice.
Main Outcome Measure: Not applicable.
Results: A variety of factors has produced an increased demand for qualified pharmacist preceptors, including workload issues, an increasing number of pharmacy schools, and an increased experiential load in the pharmacy school curricula. Characteristics of quality preceptors include demonstrating enthusiasm in their teaching, being open to questions, and providing constructive feedback. Sites and preceptors can benefit from teaching student pharmacists by receiving assistance in developing and maintaining clinical services, sensing the satisfaction of giving back to the profession, and material rewards provided by schools of pharmacy. In this article, three successful preceptors share their perspectives and insights about precepting, and a professional organization perspective is included to highlight the support for precepting student pharmacists.
Conclusion: Additional introductory and advanced quality pharmacy experiential practice sites are needed, and pharmacists are encouraged to contact nearby pharmacy schools to become preceptors.
Introduction
Colleges of pharmacy are eager to establish long-term relationships with experienced pharmacists willing to impart professional knowledge and provide quality mentoring for student pharmacists through on-site experiential education courses. The need is becoming urgent for several reasons: continuing increase in demand for pharmacists in the United States, growth in both enrollment in and number of colleges of pharmacy, recent change to the all doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum, and need to place students in introductory practice experiences.
At the same time as demand for qualified, willing preceptors increases, some of the same factors—plus others—is reducing their supply. First, new and expanding pharmacy schools are employing some potential preceptors as faculty to teach professional practice courses and manage experiential (clerkships/rotations) sites. The number of pharmacists available for hire is thus reduced, and this reduction comes at a time when practitioners are faced with the challenge of an increasingly heavy workload. Because of work pressures, many practitioners may not feel that they have the time to devote to teaching students. Another factor in the increased demand for experiential sites is the shift to all-PharmD curricula. Before the introduction of the entrylevel doctor of pharmacy curriculum, schools typically required two to three advanced practice experiences per student. According to a recent survey conducted by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Experiential Education Section, most pharmacy schools now require between 5 and 10 advanced practice experiences per student, which typically vary in length from 4 to 6 weeks and occur mostly during the final year of pharmacy school. For a college or school with 100 students, this means that the number of advanced experiences required each year increased from approximately 300 per year to approximately 1,000 per year.
Finally, the requirement of the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education to incorporate introductory practice experiences into the curriculum has further increased the need for experiential sites. Depending on class size and the curricula developed, this could mean as many as 300–500 more sites, and preceptors must be added to fulfill the introductory practice experience requirement.
Combining the increased need for pharmacists with the increased need for educational opportunities creates many challenges for schools. Administration and faculty from colleges of pharmacy are seeking good, quality preceptors to fulfill all of the experiential requirements for future pharmacy professionals.
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Experiential Education Section survey on file, September 23, 2002.