Undergraduate Student Perceptions of Pharmacy Entrustable Professional Activities

Abstract

Introduction: With declining applicant numbers, pharmacy education seeks to effectively communicate the value of the pharmacist on the health care team to attract learners to pharmacy. The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) published entrustable professional activities (EPAs) to outline the expected roles and responsibilities of new pharmacy graduates. However, it is unknown whether these statements resonate with the general public and could potentially attract learners to pharmacy.  Methods: A survey was administered to all students before and after the completion of an undergraduate overview of pharmacy course. Participants were to respond “yes” or “no” to statements assessing the relevance to pharmacy practice and the expectation of the activity to occur in all pharmacy practice settings.  Results: A total of 283 students participated in the pre-course survey, with 258 students completing the post-course survey. Pre-course, 11 of the 15 EPA statements had a high level of agreement (>80%) for relevance to practice. The high level of agreement continued in the post-course survey with five EPA statements exhibiting a significant increase in both the relevance and expectation of the role in pharmacy practice. The secondary analysis revealed no difference among students with varying degrees of prior pharmacy knowledge or exposure.  Conclusions:  Most students, regardless of prior knowledge of pharmacy, found the EPAs illustrative of pharmacist activities even prior to completing the pharmacy course. Entrustable professional activity statements may be a reasonable means to communicate the value of the pharmacist to the general public.