Implications of advanced pharmacy practice experience placements

The purpose of this study was to assess relevant variables of advanced pharmacy practice experience placements in entry-level PharmD programs and to serve as a follow-up to surveys conducted in 1991-1992 and 1994-1995. Questionnaires were mailed to all accredited colleges of pharmacy to obtain information regarding entry-level PharmD programs. The number of colleges offering a PharmD degree has increased from 64 to 80 since the 1995 study. Eighty-nine percent (71/80) of the institutions contacted either provided data (42) or indicated it was too early in their curricular transition to do so (28). The number of practice experience students placed for the 1999-2000 academic year ranged from 12 to 203 per institution (mean = 80 + 40). When asked how difficult it would be to find sites within the next three years, 40 percent (17) of coordinators replied the difficulty would be five or greater on a seven-point scale (mean = 4.2 + 1.3). The three most difficult sites to obtain were ambulatory care, internal medicine, and institutional pharmacy. Eighty-five percent (34/40) of respondents cited an increase in inter-school competition for acquisition and retention of sites in the past three years. The area of inter-school competition merits further exploration as the number of institutions placing students in rotations continues to grow with the conversion to an all-PharmD system.