Changes in Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience Students' Clinical Interventions Before, During, and After COVID-19

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Education
• Clinical Pharmacy Practice
• Healthcare Quality Improvement

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted healthcare education and practice.
• Understanding the effects on pharmacy student clinical activities is crucial for curriculum development and training.
• Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) is a critical component of pharmacy education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze changes in the number, characterization, and acceptance of clinical interventions by APPE students.
• To compare student clinical interventions before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective analysis of clinical interventions documented by fourth-year student pharmacists was conducted.
• Data were collected from an online database at a large urban medical center from May 2018 to April 2024.
• Interventions were categorized into pre-COVID-19, COVID-19, and post-COVID-19 periods for comparison.

Main Results:

• A total of 4420 interventions were documented by 181 students across the three periods.
• The pre-COVID-19 period (May 2018-March 2020) saw the highest number of interventions per student (mean 29.7).
• The post-COVID-19 period (May 2022-April 2024) had a mean of 21.1 interventions per student, showing a continued downtrend.

Conclusions:

• Clinical intervention rates among APPE students have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
• Further qualitative research is needed to understand the reasons behind the sustained decrease in student-documented interventions.
• These findings highlight potential long-term impacts of the pandemic on pharmacy experiential learning.