Preceptor Corner

editorial

preceptor corner

"Students are often instructed that networking is important but are rarely taught exactly how to do this. As a preceptor, share with your learners how you have developed your own professional network and if possible, bring students along to professional organization meetings, state association meetings, and state board of pharmacy meetings."

Preceptor Pearl:

Your Students Want More Professional Development

Suzanne Larson, Director of Experiential Education, Midwestern University College of Pharmacy-Glendale

Janet Cooley, Director of Experiential Education, University of Arizona College of Pharmacy

Brooke L. Griffin, Professor and Vice Chair of Pharmacy Practice, Midwestern University College of PharmacyDowners Grove Campus (CPDG)

Disclosure The author(s) declare no real or potential conflicts or financial interest in any product or service mentioned in the manuscript, including grants, equipment, medications, employment, gifts, and honorarium.

Funding This research was not funded.

Once upon a time, there was a final year pharmacy student rotating three hours away from her college of pharmacy. She and her fellow rotation student were just a few months preceding graduation and were preparing for a school-sponsored job fair, where employers would be seeking new graduate pharmacists. Attending this fair required missing an entire day of the rotation. These two students hesitantly approached their preceptor, explained their situation, and carefully requested the day off from patient care duties to attend this fair. What was the preceptor’s response? He told the students that everything they were learning about patient care would be for naught if they didn’t have a job in which to practice these skills as a pharmacist. To this preceptor, meeting with different employers, interviewing, and eventually securing a job were just as important to the development of an Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) student as learning the nuances of patient care. This is a true story from author Suzanne Larson's education, and the authors chose this story to set the stage for an important, and sometimes overlooked, discussion. The authors frequently remind preceptors and students that experiential education is the time for student pharmacists to learn the fundamentals of pharmacy practice that cannot be taught in a lecture hall or with multiplechoice tests. These important lessons include how to communicate with other health care professionals, how to deal with stressful situations, how to deal with challenging patient interactions, and how to manage a successful pharmacy. It is also vital for student pharmacists to develop their own professional identities.1 One concept that may help mentors and preceptors guide their learners can be discussed under the broad term of professional development (PD). What is professional development? The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) defines continuous professional development (CPD) as “…a self-directed, ongoing, systemic and outcomes-focused approach to lifelong learning that is applied into practice.”2 For student learners, it can be summarized as the attributes and outcomes described in ACPE Standards 2016 Standard 4, which includes the development of characteristics such as self-awareness, leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship, and professionalism.3 Schools and colleges of pharmacy must provide curricula to meet the ACPE standards in order to achieve and maintain accreditation, however, there is flexibility in “how” this content is delivered and measured. Intuitively, pharmacists understand that a wellrounded pharmacist is not only one who is knowledgeable and competent, but also one who is caring, articulate, engaged, and an effective communicator. These traits of the affective domain are usually modeled implicitly and part of a “hidden curriculum.” These characteristics can also be nurtured and developed through a purposeful focus on professional development. Some students may lack formal mentorship, so their preceptors often serve as informal mentors. Students are usually nervous about navigating the “real world” after graduation and APPE rotations offer the perfect container to reinforce professional development concepts from their didactic curriculum. The remainder of this article will discuss several components of professional development and provide suggestions for how preceptors can incorporate elements of PD into their rotation. Additional suggestions can be found in Table 1. A simple way for a preceptor to incorporate PD into their rotation is by offering a Curriculum Vitae (CV) or resume review. In addition to reviewing and offering guidance or tips on the learner’s CV or resume, the preceptor can ask the learner for constructive feedback on their own CV or resume. Together, the learner and preceptor can discuss and share examples of how they report their activities and what they think is important to emphasize. The process of giving feedback, receiving feedback, editing, and revising can offer rich learning and development for a student pharmacist. Offering a mock interview is another way to incorporate professional development into experiential education. Interviewing skills may have been taught on campus but practicing this with a preceptor offers real-world value. Whether this is a complete mock interview or just asking one or two practice interview questions per week, helping learners think through and answer interview questions provide valuable, impactful lessons. Practice and preparation can ease the anxiety that typically accompanies a job or residency interview. Another important element of professional development relates to personal finances. For some preceptors, this may not be a topic they feel confident in providing information. For other preceptors, this may be a topic that they have many life lessons to share. There may be books or websites that preceptors and learners can explore together. Topics such as navigating student loans, budgeting, career transitions, and buying continued on next page

a house could bring perspective to a learner that is preparing for the transition from pharmacy student to practicing pharmacist. In connection with personal finance, a preceptor may consider providing learners with information about pharmacist liability insurance. Is this provided by your practice site? Is this something that is reimbursed? How much does this cost? Where do you obtain your liability insurance? How did you decide how much coverage to obtain? When completing the pharmacist licensure requirements of continuing education or CPD materials, consider including your learners. As learners transition from the didactic or classroom curriculum to experiential learning, they are developing skills of self-directed learning. However, these skills may not yet be fully developed, and learners may not have the self-awareness needed to see and address the gaps in their knowledge. Having learners work through the CPD cycle with a mentor can serve as an extremely valuable learning opportunity. This gives the learner the opportunity to set goals, find relevant learning materials, work through the materials, and re-evaluate if their learning addressed their knowledge gaps.4 APPE rotations also provide an excellent opportunity for students to develop their professional networks. Students are often instructed that networking is important but are rarely taught exactly how to do this. As a preceptor, share with your learners how you have developed your own professional network and if possible, bring students along to professional organization meetings, state association meetings, and state board of pharmacy meetings. While there, introduce them to other pharmacists. Help your learners to see the importance of advocacy for and within the profession. Together, you may want to compose a letter to your elected officials on legislative issues that impact pharmacy. There may also be opportunities for your learner to develop or improve their own professional online profile on sites such as LinkedIn. The NAPLEX and MPJE exams may be the most high-stakes and important exams of a future pharmacist’s life. A preceptor is in an ideal position to help a student prepare for these exams by incorporating practice questions, topic discussions, calculations practice, or review sessions with the learner. What NAPLEX/MPJE preparation activities make sense for your practice site and rotation? The final year of pharmacy school is the perfect opportunity to mentor students as they embark on a significant transition from student pharmacist to practicing pharmacist. Their APPE preceptors are in a perfect position to provide authentic learning activities that help students develop their patient care skills, and these duties can also be augmented with practical professional development activities. 

REFERENCES

1. Professional Identity Formation [Internet]. American

Association of Colleges of Pharmacy; 2022 [cited 2022

Aug 24]. Available from: https://www.aacp.org/article/ professional-identity-formation 2. Continuing Professional Development [Internet].

Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education [cited 2022

Aug 24]. Available from: https://www.acpe-accredit.org/ continuing-professional-development/ 3. Accreditation Standards and Key Elements for the

Professional Program in Pharmacy Leading to the Doctor of Pharmacy Degree (“Standards 2016”) [Internet].

Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education; 2015 [cited 2022 Aug 24]. Available from https://www.acpe-accredit. org/pdf/Standards2016FINAL.pdf 4. Continuing Professional Development…a self-directed, ongoing, systematic and outcomes-focused approach to lifelong learning that is applied to practice. Accreditation

Council for Pharmacy Education [cited 2022 Aug 24].

Available from: https://www.acpe-accredit.org/pdf/

CPDConceptsACPEWebsiteFeb2015.pdf

Table 1. Professional Development Ideas/Activities for Preceptors

Area of Focus Ideas

Self-Awareness Journal Club or reflection paper on giving and receiving feedback Facilitate a 360-degree feedback experience for your student Leadership Attend a local or national pharmacy meeting such as Legislative Day, State Association Meeting, or a State Board of Pharmacy Meeting Innovation/ Entrepreneurship Exposure to pharmacists who have created or implemented new programs or clinical services

Professionalism Journal Club or reflection paper on academic dishonesty Journal Club or reflection paper on Professional Identity Formation