SCHOOL OF PHARMACY
pharmacy.presby.edu | 864.938.3900
February 2019
Spring Preceptor Workshop
Step 1 and Step 2 Rotations Most preceptors spend some time with their students on the first day to find out their career goals, prior rotations, and work history. Do your expectations change when you realize the student has vast work experience? Or when he/she has had several rotations similar to yours (like Colby in the cartoon)? The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) is interested in having preceptors increase the rigor of an APPE when it is the student’s second (or third!) rotation in that same type, such as acute care. For some rotations, this may mean more independence providing patient care (rounding on patients, delivering MTM services, making recommendations to a provider). For others, this may be more projects or assignments. This can also impact how you grade your student, based on these expectations.
The Spring Preceptor Workshop (March 28, 2019) will address the topic of progressively harder APPEs. Preceptors will be divided into smaller workgroups based on their APPE/IPPE types to develop activities for “Step 1” and “Step 2” rotations. The next steps will be to decide what type of rotation you offer (only Step 1, only Step 2, or some combination of both?) and then strategize the best times of year to offer these. Following the session, you will have ready-to-use resources to better evaluate your students and hold them to the correct expectations.
Required vs. Elective Rotations Now that our updated APPE evaluation has been in use for over a year, our preceptors have noticed that required APPE rotation evaluations do not allow a “not applicable” option when grading on the Presbyterian 10 competencies. Do you find that there are some competencies that are more difficult to evaluate? Acute care preceptors have reported difficulty grading “Promotion of Health and Public Welfare” and “Dispensing of Pharmaceuticals,” while many advanced community preceptors report struggling with true activities for “Ethical and Legal Decisions.”
At the workshop, preceptor workgroups will identify these “problem competencies” for their specific rotations. The attendees will identify specific barriers and brainstorm creative solutions to each one. By the end of the session, you can determine if your rotation is best categorized as required or elective and will develop activities for each competency on the evaluation.