Standardization of rotation schedules for pharmacy students' advanced practice rotations and potential impact on rotation site availability.
BACKGROUND
Increasing enrollment in pharmacy schools has led to a shortage of adequate advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) sites.


OBJECTIVE
We sought to assess our preceptors' support for a standardized rotation schedule for the multiple schools that compete for APPE sites in our area. A secondary objective was to ascertain preceptors' beliefs about the impact a regional standardized rotation schedule might have on the number of students their sites would be able to accept on rotation.


METHODS
A short questionnaire was developed. All APPE preceptors at our institution were invited to participate by e-mail, telephone and/or U.S. mail.


RESULTS
A total of 232 preceptors were contacted; questionnaires were returned by 133 preceptors (57%). A proposed region-wide rotation schedule was supported by 75.2% of respondents. Most (79%) believed that the standardization of schedules will not affect the number of students they will be able to accommodate on rotations, while 18.1% believed the new schedule will allow them to accept more students.


CONCLUSIONS
APPE preceptors in our area generally support standardization of pharmacy students' community rotation schedules, and this may increase the APPE availability but perhaps for only a minority of sites.
Brackbill
M L
ML
Shenandoah University, School of Pharmacy, 1775 North Sector Court Winchester, VA 22601, USA. mbrackbi@su.edu
Weist
P L
PL
Coffey
W L
WL
D001290:Attitude; D004512:Education, Pharmacy; D006801:Humans; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000592:standards*; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000523:psychology; D011231:Preceptorship / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013339:Students, Pharmacy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires