(43) Impact of Increasing Ambulatory Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience Hours on Preceptor and Student Evaluations

Objective : To evaluate the impact of increasing the number of required Ambulatory Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (A-IPPE) hours from 20 to 30 hours on preceptor and third year pharmacy student evaluations of confidence in completing course objectives and ambulatory Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE)-readiness.

Methods: Students at the University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy enrolled in the 20-hour rotation from June 2020 to 2022 and the 30-hour rotation from June 2022 to December 2022 were surveyed on Qualtrics via Likert scale questions to reflect on their knowledge of and confidence performing course objectives regarding an ambulatory pharmacist's role prior to and following their A-IPPE. Current preceptors of both rotation types were surveyed in December 2022 to compare each groups’ ability to meet objectives of the course. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.

Results: Response rates for the 20-hour pre/post and 30-hour pre/post surveys were 58%, 33%, 92.9%, and 74.1% respectively. Overall, more 30-hour students agreed or strongly agreed that they felt confident on every course objective and understood the role of the pharmacist. While only 47.9% strongly agreed they were better prepared for an ambulatory APPE following the 20-hour IPPE, 74.7% strongly agreed after 30 hours. The preceptor response rate was 68% (13/19). Responses largely indicated no difference between ability to meet objectives for 20 vs 30 hours and 45.5% felt the extra 10 hours were a benefit to the student.

Conclusions: Adding 10 hours of required A-IPPE hours made students feel more prepared for the ambulatory setting and APPE, however, preceptors found no difference in performance. More studies are needed regarding the ideal number of hours for a IPPE experience.