title: A continuous professional development process for first-year pharmacy students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop, pilot test, and evaluate a continuous professional development (CPD) process for first-year pharmacy (P1) students.
  
  
  METHODS
  Students and faculty members were introduced to the important elements of the CPD process via a live training program. Students completed the year-long 4-step CPD cycle by identifying a learning objective, creating a plan, completing the learning activity, evaluating their learning outcome, documenting each step, and meeting with their faculty advisor for feedback and advice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy-five first-year students (100%) successfully completed the CPD process during the 2009-2010 academic year. The students spent an average of 7 hours (range 2 to 20 hours) on the CPD process. The majority of faculty members (83%) completing the survey instrument found the process valuable for the students and would like to see the program continued.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Integrating a CPD requirement for students in a college or school of pharmacy is feasible and valuable to students' developing life-long learning skills. Effective and frequent training of faculty members and students is a key element in the CPD process.
authors.affiliation: Wegmans School of Pharmacy, St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY 14618, USA. robrocta@sjfc.edu
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: O'Brocta
authors.forename: Asim
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abu-Baker
authors.forename: Parag
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Budukh
authors.forename: Mona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gandhi
authors.forename: Jill
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lavigne
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Birnie
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D004512:Education, Pharmacy; D004513:Education, Pharmacy, Continuing / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005178:Faculty; D005246:Feedback; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D010604:Pharmacy; D010865:Pilot Projects; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013339:Students, Pharmacy