About the Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience Program IPPE)
The Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience program was developed in response to the Accreditation Standards set forth by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) to provide early experiential learning opportunities for pharmacy students throughout the curriculum. During the first three professional years, students will gain a total of 300 hours of experience exploring the concept of professionalism, developing practice skills, gaining exposure to a variety of career opportunities, and gain hands-on experience within the pharmacy profession. Multiple opportunities for reflection and group discussion are provided throughout the program. The Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience program is essential for students entering the professional curriculum to acquire a broad overview of pharmacy and its role and responsibility in health care.
The Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience course series includes:
1 st Year: Service Learning Experience
2 nd Year: Practice Skills Experience
3 rd Year: Patient Care Experience
First-Year Student
Objective:
The experiential activity is designed to provide the student with an opportunity to demonstrate empathy, cultural sensitivity, and civic responsibility by participating in a nutrition service-learning activity that involves individuals of different ages, ethnic groups, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Learning Outcomes:
After completing the service-learning activity, the student should be able to:
1. List the general principles of a healthy diet and a physical activity regimen
2. Identify foods that are contained in a healthy diet
3. Discuss how the media influences nutrition and physical activity goals
4. Provide tips on how to make healthy choices at fast food restaurants
5. Discuss food label components in an effort to make smarter food choices
6. Describe the importance of counting calories
7. Discuss the importance of eating breakfast and identifying breakfast foods that support their nutrition goals
8. Compare and contrast health promotion versus disease management
9. Interact with individuals of different race, socioeconomic status, culture, and gender with the appropriate skills, compassion, etc.
10. Employ different techniques to convey health related information and motivate individuals to change or adopt lifestyle habits.
Description:
The students will be enrolled in a one hour credit course where they will be taught basic information about a healthy diet and physical activity to be presented to middle school students. The students will be placed in groups and assigned to different classes at various middle schools in the city. Ultimately each student will be assigned to a group of 4-6 middle school students and will be expected to remain with the same group of middle school students for all of the visits.
The students will visit the middle schools on 10 occasions (visit 1 – icebreaker, visits 2-10 – teach material). The in-class time will be approximately 50 minutes.
The students will be expected to complete a reflection assignment after each visit and participate in a group discussion. The students will also be required to participate in at least one activity that would reinforce the importance of a healthy diet and physical activity (e.g. diet analysis, use of pedometer). As a means of summative assessment, the students will be given an exam to test knowledge gained from the course.
Second-Year Student
Objective:
The objective of the second year experience is to provide students with an opportunity to become actively involved in the practice of pharmacy in the traditional community and institutional practice settings.
Learning Outcomes:
After completion of the experiential activity, the student should be able to perform the following at level consistent with their year of study:
A. Provide patient-centered care
B. Manage the practice
C. Manage medication use systems
D. Provide drug information
Description:
Each student will be randomly assigned to spend 80 hours in a community practice and 80 hours in an institutional practice setting (total 160 hours). The students will be given one semester to complete their hours in each setting (e.g. Fall 07-community setting and Spring 08-institutional setting).
The students will be actively involved in filling prescriptions, the dispensing process, inventory management, documenting adverse drug reactions and medication errors, preparing sterile products, conducting patient interviews, and other patient-related activities. In addition to the activities at their site, the students will be responsible for a written reflection of their experience and participating in a group discussion.
Third-Year Student
Objective:
The experiential activity is designed to provide the student with an opportunity to develop a pharmaceutical care plan to be used in a patient case presentation in the acute care and the ambulatory care settings.
Goals:
The goal of the activity is to increase the student’s confidence in the following areas:
1. Communication with patients, instructors, peers, other health care providers
2. Collection of pertinent patient data
3. Interpretation and evaluation of patient information
4. Identification of drug related problems
5. Development of a pharmaceutical care plan
Learning Outcome:
After completion of the experiential activity, the student should be able to design, implement, monitor, evaluate, and adjust pharmaceutical care plans that are patient-specific and evidence-based.
