Professional Experience Program (PEP) General Description
The purpose of the Professional Experience Program (PEP) is to expose students to various pharmacy practice experiences within the profession. Students are introduced to the concept of professionalism, developing practice skills and gaining exposure to a variety of career opportunities. PEP coordinates opportunities for active participation and comprehensive experiences that allow students to gain the required skills and judgment necessary within the pharmacy profession. This is accomplished through the Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (IPPE) and Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) as structured experiential courses.
Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (IPPE)
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 through several early learning opportunities. These include valuable service to the community, active involvement in traditional, community, and institutional settings, and an opportunity to develop pharmaceutical care plans used in patient case presentations in the acute care and ambulatory care settings. Over 3 years, students gain a total of 300 hours of experience exploring the concept of professionalism, developing practice skills, and getting hands-on experience within the pharmacy profession with multiple opportunities for reflection and group discussion.
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.
The Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience course series includes:
• 1st Year: Service Learning and Patient Interviewing Experience
• 2nd Year: Practice Skills Experience
• 3rd Year: Clinical and Patient Counseling Experience
Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE)
The Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience Program (APPE) is a structured experiential course designed to educate students to think and act independently as pharmacy practitioners during the fourth professional year. The principal mechanism used in experiential training is to place students in practice environments where they will encounter multiple challenges.
The program consists of 42 weeks of APPE rotations. Each rotation is 6 weeks and begins in July and continues through May of the following year. Each student is required to complete the following:
• 1- Community Pharmacy Practice Rotation
• 1-Institutional Pharmacy Practice Rotation
• 1-Ambulatory Care Pharmacy Practice Rotation
• 1-Acute Care Pharmacy Practice Rotation
• 3-Elective Clinical Specialty Pharmacy Practice Rotations
The College of Pharmacy currently has over 500 preceptors and facility sites combined in clinical, community, institutional, and specialty pharmacy practice to facilitate the APPE experiences.
