Practice experiences at a single institutional practice site to improve advanced pharmacy practice examination performance

Abstract

Objective. To determine whether sequential assignment of students to the same facility for institutional practice experiences improves their advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) examination scores. Design. Student volunteers were assigned to the same healthcare facility for all institutional introductory pharmacy practice experiences (IPPEs) and advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs). Other students completed institutional IPPEs and APPEs at separate healthcare facilities, ranging from 2 to 4 different facilities per student. APPE examination scores of students assigned to the same facility for all institutional learning experiences were compared with those of students assigned to more than 1 institutional practice site. Assessment. Holding grade point average constant, students assigned to the same facility for institutional IPPEs and APPEs scored 3 percentage points higher on the APPE institutional examination compared with students assigned to separate facilities for these experiences. Conclusion. Assigning students to the same facility for both institutional IPPEs and APPEs positively influenced knowledge-based APPE examination performance.