(333) Strengthening Student Success: Investing in Retention Through Early Detection, Intervention, and Remediation

Objective : Pharmacy education poses significant challenges and obstacles for students and, ultimately, the profession of pharmacy. Increasing attrition and failure rates in pharmacy schools are a concerning trend, and these issues are projected to worsen in the future. Multiple factors contribute to these outcomes, including the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, lack of preparedness, motivation, outside distractions, and fragility. Nonetheless, failures provide valuable opportunities for growth and learning. To succeed in pharmacy education, students require the necessary support to overcome the obstacles faced.

Methods: Our institution has established a culture of assessment to continuously evaluate various aspects of our educational programs, including curricular and co-curricular entities, policies, and procedures. Reflecting upon recent changes to our remediation policy, we identified areas for process improvements. Just as timely intervention is crucial for optimizing patient outcomes, early detection and intervention are critical for at-risk students to achieve success in their academic pursuits. Our goal is to achieve competency in the required course material, and we recognize the importance of early detection and intervention for at-risk students. Therefore, we have implemented a new 2-phase remediation policy that involves all course deliverables in our early alert system.

Results: The new policy focuses on exam/assessment failures related to low academic performance and not those due to academic integrity or professionalism issues. The policy engages the student, faculty, the advisor, and student success personnel earlier in the process, improving accountability and providing a better chance for success.

Conclusions: By investing in our pharmacy students through deliberate actions, we can generate a value proposition resulting in a stronger and more successful pharmacy workforce.