(211) Assessing Medication Safety in PharmD Education in the US

Objective : The main objective of this study is to measure the current state of medication error (ME) coursework in PharmD programs at ACPE-accredited colleges and schools of pharmacy in the United States. The secondary objective is to assess the quantity and quality of medication safety instruction in these programs.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey by sending an electronic questionnaire with shared link through QuestionPro to the deans of pharmacy schools with two reminders approximately two weeks apart. The curriculum assessment committee chairs in pharmacy schools were invited to participate in the survey. The questionnaire consisted of 16 major questions that collected information of institution and the topics of ME including unit dose, error detection methods, automation, and technology. We used Stata/SE 16.0 to analyze the data.

Results: A total of 44 complete responses were received, representing a diverse set of institutions (43% of public and 56% of private universities), with a majority responses from teaching institutions (70%). Ninety-three percent of the institutions covered the topic of ME with a median of 8 hours (Interquartile range: 6-15hours) in their core curriculum. Although 37% of research institutions offered more than 15 hours of ME, we found no statistically significant difference between teaching (23%) and research institutions. The ME related topics ranked as electronic health record (93%), computerized physician order entry (89%), and medication use systems (80%). Fourteen percent of the institutions have offered ME electives, such as medication safety, achieving medication safety through informatics, and patient safety in medication use systems.

Conclusions: This survey provides information about teaching medication safety in PharmD programs at ACPE-accredited colleges and schools of pharmacy in the US.