(133) Does it “count?”: impact of pre-pharmacy work experience on drug knowledge assessments

Objective : To examine the impact of pre-pharmacy work experience on student performance on a drug knowledge capstone assessment and overall course grade in a skills-based laboratory course series.

Methods: Reported pre-pharmacy work experience was collected for students in the graduating classes of 2024 and 2025 from their pharmacy school application. Work experience was differentiated into three categories: 1) any pharmacy-related experience (e.g., technician, shadowing, research); 2) community pharmacy experience; and 3) institutional pharmacy experience. Scores were collected for both semesters across two years [first-year (P1) and second-year (P2)] on two course components, drug knowledge capstone assessment and overall final course letter grade, in a skills-based laboratory course series. Student performance was compared using t-tests and final course letter grades were compared using Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests between the two groups. Groups were defined as those with work experience in each category and those without work experience.

Results: During the P1/first semester, students who had any pharmacy-related experience scored higher (88.48%) on the drug knowledge capstone assessment compared to students with no experience (85.23%, p=.009). Additionally, students with any pharmacy-related experience had a higher final course letter grade compared to students with no experience (p=.045). Prior experience at a community pharmacy led to higher drug knowledge scores during two semesters, the P1/first semester (p=.007) and P2/second semester (p=.045). No significant differences were determined for prior institutional pharmacy experience.

Conclusions: Any pharmacy experience prior to pharmacy school and specifically community pharmacy experience impacted student drug knowledge performance during the P1/first semester course and the P2/second semester course.