(47) Interdisciplinary and Practice Understanding Approaches for Non-clinical Faculty in a Pharmacy College

Objective : Although faculty development models are well published in education literature, there is a lack of effective programs to ensure that non-clinical faculty understand the pharmacy profession and practice. This may lead to suboptimal course delivery impacting student learning. Here, we describe current efforts at a pharmacy program to evaluate and support faculty professional development needs with particular emphasis on understanding pharmacy practice.

Methods: The Faculty and Staff Development (FSD) Committee at the Chicago State University College of Pharmacy (CSU-COP) developed an annual feedback loop survey for faculty needs in three area of academic, including teaching, service, and research. Based on the feedback, a robust faculty development program was developed that included CE events and other hands-on training workshops with particular emphasis on understanding pharmacy practice, team-based learning, and test item writing. The variety of topics covered by the program provided faculty members with ample opportunity to gain practical experience in their areas of need and enabled them to remain abreast of changes in clinical practice.

Results: The committee ensured that the program was regularly assessed and formally evaluated. Post-program evaluations demonstrated that faculty’s understanding and knowledge of the topic improved from 3 to 5 on a scale of 5 and that the program positively impacted their professional development.

Conclusions: It is important that the pharmacy educators remain up to date with the emerging trends as well as the accreditation requirements in order to be able to develop well-rounded future pharmacists with strong interdisciplinary knowledge. The faculty development program at CSU-COP provided trainings in these critical areas and addressed several requirements in ACPE standards 18 and 19, including practice understanding, scholarly productivity, and faculty/staff development.