Addressing practical challenges with entrustable professional activities in ambulatory care experiential education

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Education
• Experiential Learning
• Assessment Strategies

Background:

• Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) are an adopted assessment strategy by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.
• Implementation of EPAs in ambulatory care advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) presents challenges in grading consistency.
• Further guidance is needed for effective EPA application in APPEs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a rubric for delineating expected entrustable professional activity (EPA) level progression.
• To address challenges in grading consistency within ambulatory care APPEs.
• To provide a tool for preceptors and students to improve expectations of progression.

Main Methods:

• A rubric was developed for a required ambulatory care APPE.
• Sampling included preceptors, faculty, and students.
• The rubric defined EPA level progression from week one to week four based on setting-specific activities.

Main Results:

• The developed rubric was perceived as accurate and useful.
• The tool enhanced expectations of progression for students and preceptors in ambulatory care APPEs.
• The rubric demonstrated potential in addressing grading consistency issues.

Conclusions:

• Specifying clinical activity performance by weekly EPA level progression aids APPE grading consistency.
• Further research is needed on appropriate progression within APPEs and graduate/post-graduate training.
• Collaboration in applying core EPAs into experiential education is essential as more programs adopt EPAs.
• The setting-specific progression rubric can be a valuable tool for preceptors and students.