The experiential curriculum accounts for approximately 30 percent of the school’s Practice Ready Curriculum and includes the introductory pharmacy practice experiences (IPPEs) and advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs). IPPEs occur beginning in the summer after the P1 year and continue through the P3 year. APPEs occur in the final professional year (P4). Experiential training also includes interprofessional education and the co-curriculum.
All students must complete 300 hours of IPPEs. IPPEs begin in the summer after the P1 year and continue through the P3 year.
This course is a three-week (120 hour) IPPE that students complete during the summer between their P1 and P2 years. Students are exposed to a community pharmacy setting in which they gain experience in the drug distribution process, patient counseling, and interprofessional collaboration. Students have opportunities to apply concepts and clinical knowledge from the P1 curriculum to patient care in the setting of a community pharmacy. They participate in patient care through communication with patients and other healthcare providers, the medication distribution process, patient counseling, and quality improvement processes.
This course is a one-week (40 hour) IPPE that students complete during a one-week block in between integrated learning experiences (ILE) 5 and 6 in the Fall of the P2 year. Students build upon their initial exposure to the community pharmacy setting that occurred during their three-week Community Pharmacy IPPE that focused on the medication distribution process. The focus of the Health and Wellness IPPE is providing clinical services to patients within the community pharmacy setting. Students will provide immunizations, conduct blood pressure and blood glucose screenings, and provide counseling to patients.
This course is a six-week (12 hour) IPPE that students complete concurrently with one six-week integrated learning experience (ILE) in either the fall or spring of the P2 year. Students are exposed to a growing form of clinical practice as they navigate an electronic health record and communicate with patients and providers in order to improve clinical outcomes. Under the supervision of clinical pharmacy specialists, students utilize remote access to electronic medical records of affiliated partners to provide population management services for patients.
Students are engaged in the evaluation of population-level data to identify patients who would benefit from interventions. Population management involves targeted Health care Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) measures that can be impacted telephonically such as pneumococcal vaccinations in older adults, hospital readmissions, hospitalization for preventable complications, and access to preventive/ambulatory care services. Other examples include medication reviews, ordering of laboratory tests, identifying patients in need of immunizations, and educating patients before scheduled appointments on the importance and benefits of receiving immunizations.
Indicated intervention(s) will be completed for identified patients. Students will contact patients telephonically, as needed, to gather additional information or to provide education about identified interventions.This course is a two-week (80 hour) IPPE that students complete during the summer between the P2 and P3 years. Students are exposed to a health-system setting in which they gain experience in the operational, distributive, and patient care aspects of an institutional/hospital pharmacy. Students have opportunities to apply concepts and clinical knowledge from the P1 and P2 curriculum to patient care in the setting of an institutional pharmacy. They participate in patient care through the medication distribution process, prospective drug review, drug monitoring, and interprofessional interactions.
This course is a 40-hour IPPE that students complete during the summer between the P2 and P3 years. Students gain experience in providing pharmaceutical care to patients in a primary/ambulatory care or acute care setting. Students provide evidence-based, patient-centered collaborative care to meet the medication management needs of patients. Students are exposed to the day-to-day activities of a clinical pharmacist (acute care or ambulatory care) providing direct patient care. Students are given opportunities to examine the process clinical pharmacists use to determine the most appropriate therapy (pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic) for a variety of disease states. They assist in providing patient care through prospective and retrospective drug reviews, drug monitoring, patient interviewing, counseling, and interprofessional interactions.
| Experience | Place in Curriculum | IPPE Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Community IPPE | Summer after P1 year | 120 |
| Health and Wellness IPPE | Mid-Fall of P2 year | 40 |
| Population Health IPPE | P2 year | 12 |
| Interprofessional Simulation | P2 year | 4 |
| Institutional/Health-System IPPE | Summer after P2 year | 80 |
| Clinical IPPE | Summer after P2 year | 40 |
| Interprofessional Clinic Experience | P3 year | 4 |
| TOTAL HOURS | 300 |
The APPE curriculum occurs in the P4 year. Students complete eight 5-week rotations (total 1600 hour) and is outlined below.
Advanced community pharmacy experiences provide comprehensive, evidence-based, individualized, patient-centered care to a diverse population in the outpatient setting. Pharmacists are expected to be accountable for the patient’s drug therapy outcomes and work collaboratively with other healthcare professionals. This experience is distinguished from introductory community pharmacy experiences through greater emphasis on direct patient care (e.g., administration of immunizations, health-related screenings, self-care, medication therapy management services, and collaborative practice), pharmacy operations management, and personnel management while still participating in patient counseling and distributive functions.
Ambulatory care experiences provide evidence-based, patient-centered collaborative care in the outpatient setting to meet the medication management needs of patients in the treatment of disease. These pharmacists promote health and wellness, disease prevention and education, and medication management of chronic illnesses which may include but not be limited to diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease / dyslipidemia, asthma / chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and heart failure. Other chronic diseases encountered by the ambulatory care pharmacist may include chronic kidney disease, chronic infectious diseases, and other chronic diseases responsive to infusion therapy that do not require hospitalization. Pharmacist delivered ambulatory care occurs in institutional health system-based clinics, community-based clinics, government-funded clinics, and managed care organizations as well as the community pharmacy setting where comparable care is provided.
Acute Care general medicine experiences provide comprehensive, evidence-based, individualized, patient-centered care to adult inpatients typically located on a general medicine floor. Pharmacists are expected to be accountable for the patient’s drug therapy outcomes and practice as an integrated member of the interprofessional healthcare team. Typical patients present with the following medical problems: cardiac, pulmonary, renal, hepatic, neurologic, gastrointestinal, endocrine and infectious diseases. The experience incorporates all elements of care from medication reconciliation, medication therapy recommendations and monitoring, discharge counseling, and transitions of care.
Health-system practice (advanced institutional) experiences provide comprehensive, evidence-based, individualized, patient-centered care to a diverse population in the institutional health-system setting. Pharmacists are expected to be accountable for the patient’s drug therapy outcomes and work collaboratively with other healthcare professionals. This experience is distinguished from introductory institutional pharmacy experiences through greater emphasis on broad-based operational duties, regulatory compliance, medication procurement, and formulary and personnel management while still participating in distributive functions (e.g. sterile and non-sterile compounding, dispensing technologies).
Elective experiences are available in all of the above listed areas and may also include rotations in the following areas: academic pharmacy, pharmacy management, nuclear pharmacy, long-term care pharmacy, pharmaceutical industry, public health, research, Indian Health Services, FDA, CDC, and international experiences.
The P4 Summative Experience I is an independent study course focusing on the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) preparation utilizing the RxPrep platform. Students work longitudinally throughout the summer and fall of the P4 year to complete study modules based on an assigned schedule with each module culminating in a cumulative assessment. Students complete a NAPLEX pre-test as well as 9 cumulative RxPrep assessments.
The P4 Summative Experience II course occurs in the Spring of the P4 year and continues the independent study component focusing on the NAPLEX board exam and Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination (MPJE) preparation utilizing the RxPrep platform and supplemental materials. Also included in the course are professional communications assignments (presentation and writing assignments) that students are required to complete throughout the P4 year.
For the independent study component, students work longitudinally to complete the final RxPrep module and cumulative assessment in the sequence continued from the Summative Experience I course, two practice NAPLEX exams, three MPJE assessments, and one MPJE practice exam based on an assigned schedule.
The professional communications portion of the course is intended to develop a student’s ability to evaluate and synthesize pertinent literature and effectively communicate a pharmacotherapy-related topic in a professional manner. The student will present at least two patient presentations, at least two journal club presentations, and at least two in-service presentations and complete at least two written assignments during the APPEs in the P4 year.
Interprofessional education occurs longitudinally throughout all four years of the curriculum. IPE includes seminars, simulations, and patient care activities. IPE activities occur on both the Auburn campus and Mobile campus. Interprofessional teams include students from nursing, nutrition, medicine, and social work students in addition to pharmacy students. Students on APPE rotation participate in interprofessional experiences with other healthcare professionals on many rotations, which allows them to apply the information that they learned in their didactic curriculum.
P1 students in Auburn are introduced to competencies related to interprofessional team based care through seminars. Each student participates in 2 seminars with other health professions students. These seminars give students a chance to learn concepts about, from, and with other disciplines while they are learning about their profession early in their time in pharmacy school. P2 students in Auburn implement the competencies they learned as a P1 through simulations. Poverty and disaster simulations take place on the Auburn campus where students interact with other healthcare professions students to learn about caring for patients in various situations that they may face in future practice.
The culminating IPE experience for Auburn students takes place in their P3 year where they are able to interact with patients as part of an outreach event, mobile IPE clinics. These clinics take place in senior centers and other community locations in Auburn and surrounding areas. Students provide holistic assessments of patients in conjunction with other healthcare professional students. They also implement educational plans with patients.
All IPE is a mixture of online training and preparation followed with live active learning or training sessions P1 students in Mobile are introduced to interprofessional team competencies through a series of online modules. These modules focus on interprofessional roles and responsibilities, communication, values and ethics, and teamwork. Student’s then apply these concepts with students from varying health professions in activities designed to be both fun and informative. P2 students in Mobile participate in further seminars that introduce more advanced concepts broached in their P1 year and give students opportunities to apply some of the skills and knowledge.
P3 students in Mobile culminate and apply profession specific knowledge and IPE related skills in advanced patient care scenarios including experiences through the newly built University of South Alabama Simulation Lab and the Student Run Free Clinic which cares for underserved patients in the Mobile area. Students also gain valuable scholarship experience by completing a mentored interprofessional poster presentation on topics related to interprofessional care.
Co-Curricular activities are those which complement student learning occurring in the practice ready curriculum. The co-curriculum for HSOP focuses on advocacy, professionalism, leadership, and professional development. Student pharmacists are introduced to the co-curriculum during orientation week, and they participate in co-curricular activities longitudinally throughout the P1-P4 years. There are 24 competencies assigned to the co-curriculum with 15 of these competencies being benchmarked within the Co-Curriculum. Course management for co-curricular assignments is conducted in Canvas.