Implementation of general medicine topics for acute care inpatient advanced pharmacy practice experiences

The purpose of this study was to describe the development of a general medicine student workbook to standardize acute care inpatient fourth-year pharmacy rotations among faculty with varied pharmacy practice sites.

Four faculty designed an advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) student workbook on general medicine topics consisting of short answer and multiple-choice questions to ensure standardization by exposing all students to the same topics. A pre- and posttest was administered on the first and last day of the five-week rotation block to evaluate the effects of the APPE workbook on student understanding of general medicine topics. A paired t-test was used to evaluate the significance of the difference in test scores.

The average of the posttest exam was found to be significantly higher after the completion of the student workbook. The average grade on the pre-rotation 30-item exam was 22.8 (76.73%) and the post-rotation 30-item exam was 25.7 (86.26%), with a difference of 9.53% (P < .001, 95% CI = 7.11 to 11.96).

Creating a standardized student workbook for an inpatient acute care rotation was a valuable addition. All students assigned to the faculty involved were exposed to the same topics despite variability in preceptors and practice sites. Overall the verbal feedback from the students was positive about the student workbook and discussions, especially since the information was applicable to their patients on rotation. Faculty will continue to use this workbook as a tool to teach various inpatient general medicine topics during the acute care APPE.