Creating a Pharmacy Internship: A Toolbox for Success

Exploring the problems and coping strategies of pharmacy internship in large general hospitals in China: from the perspective of preceptors

OBJECTIVE

The role of the Hospital Pharmacy Preceptor (HPP) is pivotal in upholding the excellence of experiential training and fostering the professional growth of pharmacy interns. However, there is a lack of studies that provide an overview of pharmacy internships from the perspective of HPP. This study explores the experience and expectations of HPPs regarding existing problems and possible coping strategies in intern teaching.

METHODS

This is a qualitative study that was conducted through individual interviews and focus group discussions. HPPs were invited as participants from large-scale tertiary hospitals in representative provinces of mainland China. Interview and focus group discussion data were analyzed using thematic analysis to see emerging themes from the data. Nvivo 12 was utilized for data management and processing.

RESULTS

Eight individual interviews and two focus group discussions were conducted, involving 14 HPPs as participants. Upon the examination of the interviews and focus group data, four themes were summarized regarding HPPs' perceptions: 1) current presenting problems; 2) possible coping strategies; 3) something HPPs should do; 4) something interns should do.

CONCLUSION

This study found that from the HPPs' perspective, the hospital-based pharmacy internship still has some problems from policy to practice, which need to be addressed by the joint efforts of the state, schools, internship bases, pharmacy preceptors, and students.

Pharmacy Students' Professional Skill Development through a Scaffolded Internship

Description of the problem: The establishment of hospital pharmacy internships helps promote the growth of student pharmacists alongside the standard pharmacy curriculum. These programs are vital to helping students expand their clinical knowledge, while also benefiting the host institution. Our objective was to characterize the value of a longitudinal internship program to both the institution and its interns. Description of the innovation: The Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist (AHWFB) Pharmacy Intern Program is a unique program designed with a scaffolded concept that directly complements traditional pharmacy school curriculum and provides interns opportunities to complement tasks of health-system pharmacists. Starting with operational responsibilities in the central distribution pharmacy during the first year of the curriculum, the interns transition to more patient-facing roles during the second and third years. Throughout the course of the program, interns are also given opportunities to participate in research and professional development activities. An IRB-approved, retrospective, observational study was conducted to evaluate the benefits of the program to the institution and interns. Critical analysis: Intern interventions were quantitatively evaluated to determine institutional benefit. From October 2017 to June 2020, 16 interns completed a total of 7,191 interventions, which equates to approximately $1,295,825 of cost avoidance for the institution. A quality assurance survey was also conducted to evaluate the program's benefit to the interns. Fourteen of the 16 eligible interns participated in the survey. Of the 14 participating interns, 85.7% (n=12) strongly agreed with overall satisfaction of the program. Additionally, 71% (n=10) strongly agreed with feeling more professionally prepared than their classmates. Next steps: Implementing a scaffolded internship program has positively benefited AHWFB and the participating interns. The program's design allows for clinical and professional development alongside the pharmacy school curriculum.

Five-Year Review of a Pediatric Pharmacy Internship Program

Pharmacy internship programs improve job readiness for pharmacy learners. Pediatric-focused programs are not well described in the literature and represent only a small subset of pharmacy internships; furthermore, they offer unique experiences for learners with a strong interest in pediatrics. To better meet this need, a paid pediatric pharmacy internship was implemented in 2017 for rising second- and third-year professional pharmacy students. The program provides high-quality inpatient experience to pharmacy students with a strong interest in pediatrics via a 10-week, full-time summer program and ongoing weekend shifts throughout the academic year. Key focus areas of the internship include clinical shadowing and topic discussions, completing medication histories, research activities, and inpatient pharmacy triage. This program offers a multifaceted approach to providing interns with health-system experience and prepares learners for future careers in clinical and health-system pharmacy. To date, 100% of the 6 former interns who have graduated from pharmacy school have obtained residency positions. Furthermore, a permanent medication history technician role was created secondary to the positive response to interns providing this service.

Pharmacy Internships: We Can Do Better

The pharmacist's role in patient care is expanding, and the profession must prepare its graduates for direct patient care. Internships can help facilitate this training outside of the formal pharmacy curriculum. Intern roles can expand beyond distributive tasks to compliment the full range of pharmacist activities, providing value to the student and institution. Crucially, outcomes measured must not only be traditional measures of student and pharmacist output, but also the growth and success of the student within the program. Creative metrics (e.g. resilience or leadership development) should be considered when assessing programmatic outcomes. Programs already engaged in internship programs should assess their respective programs and report findings.