Project Outcome

The project sought to identify and document good practice for experiential learning and teaching in Australian pharmacy programs to inform curriculum development across the health sciences.
Key project findings:

1. Experiential placements are regarded as an important part of the pharmacy course by all stakeholders; significant in developing skills, knowledge and attributes in the workplace.
2. Key influences on experiential pharmacy placement are the 8 functional areas of the PSA competencies, linked to registration accreditation requirements and university-specific graduate attributes.
3. A wide range of structural models for pharmacy exist within and across university courses.
4. Planning for experiential placements needs attention across university pharmacy schools to ensure improvement of quality (and consistency removed).
5. The study reveals good practice models for student reflections and communication, but notes need for further development.
6. Despite consistency between universities on assessment tasks, assessment protocols varied between institutions.
7. More systematic approach to evaluation of student and preceptor performance.
8. Need for more development of quality indicators on preceptors, students, placement sites, university and overall environment.
9. Urgent need for recruitment, retention, training of preceptors given pressures arising from increased student numbers.