ABSTRACT
To prepare pharmacy graduates for contemporary practice, the evidence-based approach to clinical decision-making is reinforced throughout the professional programme in pharmacy leading to the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree. Early in the professional years of the PharmD programme, courses such as research methods, drug information and drug literature evaluation establish the framework for an evidence-based practice. In the later years of the professional degree programme, students are taught to apply an evidence-based approach to clinical problem-solving in courses such as pharmacotherapeutics and disease state management. Th is approach is then refi ned during the experiential components of the programme, in which students learn to modify population-based evidence by incorporating patient-specifi c information to create medication therapy management plans for individual patients. Th e current accreditation standards and guidelines for the programme, as established by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), state:
the college or school must ensure that graduates are competent, at a minimum, to … provide population-based care, through the ability to develop and implement population-specifi c, evidence-based disease management programs and protocols based upon analysis of epidemiologic and pharmacoeconomic data, medication-use criteria, medication use review, and risk-reduction strategies.2(p23)
In addition to the content of the PharmD curriculum, the current accreditation standards and guidelines for American schools and colleges of pharmacy are specifi c to pedagogy: ‘[colleges and schools should be committed] to a culture that, in general, respects and … promotes use of teaching methods shown to enhance student learning.’2(p3) Th e accreditation standards and guidelines also refer to the use of ‘proven teaching and learning methodologies’ and the use of ‘teaching and learning techniques that promote: knowledge base development; integration, application, and assessment of principles; critical thinking and problem solving; and professionalism.’2(p29) Colleges and schools of pharmacy are encouraged to be innovative in their methodologies and to integrate active learning strategies throughout the curriculum.
