Faculty Perceptions of Entrustable Professional Activities to Determine Pharmacy Student Readiness for Advanced Practice Experiences.

Objective: Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) define the core skills and tasks expected of new pharmacy graduates. Since EPAs create a framework used to quantify practice-readiness, EPAs may serve as a logical framework for determining readiness to enter Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs), a Standards 2016 requirement. However, recommendations for assessing readiness to enter APPEs is limited. The purpose of this paper is to quantify faculty perceptions of EPA importance and the expected level of entrustment that should be achieved to determine APPE readiness. Methods: A five-question survey was distributed to all faculty, staff, and administrators in our college. Respondents were asked to rate 18 statements mapped to 12 EPAs on the perceived importance of each statement and the expected level of entrustment students should achieve to determine APPE readiness. Thresholds were used to determine consensus for importance and level of entrustment for each statement. Results: A total of 63.6% of faculty responded. A strong consensus was reached on the level of importance for 16 of 18 statements (89%), while two statements demonstrated moderate consensus (11%). No strong consensus was identified on levels of entrustment. Seven of 18 statements (39%) demonstrated moderate entrustment consensus and 11 statements (61%) demonstrated little consensus. Conclusions: Strong consensus was identified regarding which EPAs are important to determine APPE readiness, whereas no strong consensus was found when evaluating levels of entrustment. Lack of consensus regarding entrustment raises several questions that require further study and clarification as the implementation of EPAs continues throughout the Academy.