Development of an Entrustment-Supervision Assessment Tool for Pharmacy Experiential Education via Sequential Stakeholder Focus Groups.

Objective. To devise a pharmacy-specific, expanded Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA) entrustment-supervision scale, which frames preceptor ratings of entrustment in a prospective and retrospective manner for use in experiential learning settings. Methods. A series of focus group sessions were conducted to solicit expert opinion to develop and refine two entrustment-supervision scales. Purposive sampling was used to identify experts from different professional groups (physicians, pharmacy experiential administrators, and pharmacy practice faculty) and who had extensive knowledge regarding EPAs and at least one publication related to EPAs. Panelists were invited to participate via email. Three focus sessions were conducted by videoconferencing between June and September 2019. The primary outcome was development of a pharmacy-specific EPA entrustment-supervision assessment tool. Secondary outcomes were individual entrustment-supervision statements across five levels of the entrustment-supervision scale. Results. The focus group consisted of four pharmacy practice faculty, two experiential administrators, and one academic physician. Four concepts emerged from the focus group discussion: 1. need for more granularity in entrustment-supervision scales; 2. limitations due to differences in licensure requirements across the United States; 3. colleges/schools of pharmacy already use expanded scales; and 4. uncertainty how to rate entrustment-supervision when a student exhibits unprofessional behavior. Conclusion. A pharmacy-specific, expanded EPA entrustment-supervision scale will be useful to support longitudinal assessment of learners in experiential settings utilizing EPAs. Determining when to use a prospective versus retrospective perspective requires further evaluation.