(116) Assessing Relationship Between Curricular Placement of Law Courses and Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination Pass Rates

Objective : To identify if there is a relationship between the placement of standalone pharmacy law courses within the PharmD curriculum and Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination (MPJE) first-time pass rates. The researchers hypothesized that law courses closer to graduation will be associated with an increase in 3-year average first-time MPJE pass rates.

Methods: Colleges of pharmacy were identified using the MPJE Passing Rates for 2019-2021 Graduates found on the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) website. Characteristics of the pharmacy law content delivery within the curriculum were extracted from the program, Pharmacy College Application Service, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), and NABP websites. Colleges of pharmacy with standalone law courses, MPJE pass rates reported by NABP, and data that could be obtained via publicly available sources were included. To standardize between three year and four-year programs, law course delivery within the curriculum was measured as number of semesters (fall, spring, or summer) before graduation.

Results: One hundred eight schools met the inclusion criteria. Linear regression analysis revealed a statistically significant negative relationship between the number of semesters a law course was scheduled before graduation and 3-year average first-time MPJE pass rates (p=0.0308) and three-year average all-time MPJE pass rates (p=0.0316).

Conclusions: Earlier placement of pharmacy law courses within the PharmD curriculum has a negative impact on MPJE first-time pass rates. The results of this study suggest that schools with standalone law courses offered closer to the time of graduation have higher MPJE pass rates. Additional studies are needed to determine if there are more predictive variables for success with the MPJE.