PHARMACY STUDENT EXPERIENCES IN MEDICALLY UNDERSERVED AREAS

To encourage colleges of pharmacy to require student learning experiences in traditionally medically underserved areas and with diverse patient populations.

Rationale

Numerous reports demonstrate how student pharmacists and practice sites benefit from experiential rotations in rural, rural and remote, and urban settings, especially in settings or areas classified as medically underserved. Students learn about the cultural, financial, language, and other challenges encountered in these settings, and these skills are often invaluable when they enter practice. In addition, a student’s exposure to a new practice area may result in more interest in such sites and provide career choices that might otherwise not have been considered. ASHP does not support mandating rotations in these settings, since there are many ways to provide these interactions, and there are concerns about how colleges could develop an infrastructure for providing these experiences.

The challenges of finding good teaching sites in these settings are formidable and include a limited number of sites, a lack of qualified preceptors, and geographic distance from the college that result in housing needs. The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) currently requires colleges of pharmacy to ensure that graduates can provide patient-centered care that addresses cultural factors. Although experiential rotations may be the most common way for students to be exposed to diverse patient populations, there are many other creative ways in which this goal is being accomplished. Some colleges, for example, require students to perform service-learning projects with a focus on underserved populations.