Grading trends and evaluation of student performance across advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPE) in the Big Ten Academic Alliance (The GRAPPES study).

INTRODUCTION: With over a third of the doctor of pharmacy curriculum relying on experiential education (EE), it is critical that students are assessed and graded in accordance with their actual performance. The objective of this paper is to review advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) grading across the Big Ten Academic Alliance to describe how APPE grading occurs at these institutions and highlight differences in approach and outcomes. METHODS: Experiential directors/deans were asked to import de-identified data (e.g., APPE curriculum, midpoint and final evaluation score and grade, number of preceptors, number of students, number of years of pharmacy school, total hours of APPEs offered, number and duration of APPEs per year, grading scale information). A chi-square test including pairwise comparisons with a Bonferroni p-value adjustment for multiple comparisons was performed. RESULTS: Seven college/schools submitted data from over 3600 students between 2012-2015. The distribution of letter grades differed significantly across all colleges/schools in 2012-2013, 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 (p < 0.0001). Similarly, the distribution of letter grades by rotation type varied significantly for all colleges/schools (p < 0.0001). Students in acute care, ambulatory care, and other patient care rotation types were less likely to obtain an "A" and more likely to obtain a "B" compared to students in other rotation types. CONCLUSIONS: When letter grades are used for APPEs, the trend suggests over 95% of students receive an "A" or "B" grade. Final grades varied by rotation type with more "B" grades observed in patient care rotations than "A" grades over the three-year period.

Supporting quality in experiential education through enhanced faculty engagement.

INTRODUCTION: There are ongoing assessment and improvement activities related to strategies to improve the quality of education in the complex and resource-intensive area of experiential education (EE). One undescribed approach for design and delivery of EE programs for schools and colleges, with reliance on volunteer preceptors, is to utilize clinical practice faculty in formal partnerships with EE leadership to enhance curriculum and assessment. COMMENTARY AND IMPLICATIONS: Clinical practice faculty, who possess practice setting expertise, can serve as course directors for advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) rotations. In this role, they can collaborate with EE faculty and staff to create more course-specific expectations, learning objectives, and criteria for APPE rotation experiences. This model could increase consistency for students and preceptors, using an approach that is analogous to content experts serving as course directors in didactic curriculum. This commentary explores the potential of this strategy to increase quality and consistency in EE.

A checklist for the development of faculty mentorship programs.

Mentoring of junior faculty members continues to be a widespread need in academic pharmacy in both new programs and established schools. The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Joint Council Task Force on Mentoring was charged with gathering information from member colleges and schools and from the literature to determine best practices that could be shared with the academy. The task force summarized their findings regarding the needs and responsibilities for mentors and protégés at all faculty levels; what mentoring pieces are in existence, which need improvement, and which need to be created; and how effective mentoring is defined and could be measured. Based on these findings, the task force developed several recommendations as well as the PAIRS Faculty Mentorship Checklist. Academic institutions can benefit from the checklist whether they are planning to implement a faculty mentorship program or are interested in modifying existing programs.