RESEARCH ARTICLE: The impact of Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (IPPE) on students' skills during Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE)

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of the Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (IPPE) requirement using multiple cohorts of students, including a comparison cohort that did not participate in IPPE. The impact on student experiences in a variety of settings was examined, along with the improvement in confidence with pharmacy practice skills during Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) after participating in IPPE. Methods: A survey was administered to students from 2010–2015 both pre- and post-completion of their APPE year. The 2010 cohort completed mandatory pharmacy internship experiential hours before starting APPE; however, there was no formal IPPE curriculum. Subsequent cohorts completed a formal IPPE programme. The survey had outpatient (11 items) and inpatient (10 items) pharmacy practice skill scales. Differences between pre- and post-scale scores within cohorts were compared using ANOVA and effect sizes for the change were calculated. Results: Pre-APPE responses indicated that students had experience in more varied practice settings after IPPE implementation. In 2010, 85% of the students had experience in a chain community pharmacy yet most were lacking experience in other areas. Following implementation of the formal IPPE programme, the percentage of students reporting no experience in other practice settings decreased, for example students reporting no experience in hospital pharmacy decreased from 53% in 2010 to 1%-8% in subsequent cohorts. When comparing pre- to post- mean scores for the outpatient and inpatient scales, there was no statistically significant difference in the 2010 and 2011 cohorts; however, there was a significant difference in the 2012-2015 cohorts with the magnitude of difference increasing over time. Conclusions: Students completing a formal IPPE programme had experience in more varied practice settings and demonstrated more improvement in confidence across APPE.