Student pharmacists' perspectives on training, readiness, and confidence to provide transition of care services

Previous research has shown that pharmacists can have an essential role in improving patient care transitions. However, the extent of student pharmacists' training, readiness, and confidence in ability to provide transitions of care (TOC) remains unclear. Our goal was to examine student pharmacist preparation, readiness, and confidence for engaging in TOC.

Second-year student pharmacists at two schools/colleges of pharmacy in the United States were asked questions about their training, readiness, and confidence for providing TOC services. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data.

In all, 113 (59 Western New England University [WNE] and 54 University of Wyoming [UWYO]) second-year pharmacy students received the survey request and 78 (50 WNE and 28 UWYO) completed the survey, resulting in an overall response rate of 69%. Participants reported that pharmacy coursework provided the highest level of preparedness to offer TOC services (37%), followed by introductory pharmacy practice experiences (31%). Most participants reported having the highest level of confidence for activities related to gathering patient medication histories during TOC (46.1%), and similarly, this category of activity showed the highest population of participants who indicated a positive level of readiness (41.3%).

Applicable training and experiences with TOC increase the likelihood of greater confidence and readiness for student pharmacists to provide TOC at their future practice sites. These results provide a framework for additional quantitative research in TOC engagement among student pharmacists.