Postgraduate year two ambulatory care residency program evaluation with a tool for assessing ambulatory care pharmacist practice

Introduction: A standardized set of required competency areas, goals, and objectives are used in accreditation to create consistency in learning experiences across programs. The individual postgraduate year two (PGY-2) ambulatory care residency program is subsequently tasked with designing activities to achieve the defined goals and objectives, which may lead to variability in the constructed activities across residency programs. Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to describe (define, assess, and stratify) the current landscape of direct patient care activities provided within PGY-2 ambulatory care residency program training environments. Methods: This was a national, descriptive, cross-sectional study using the Tool for Assessing Ambulatory Care Pharmacist Practice (TAAPP). The TAAPP questionnaire was disseminated via electronic mail to PGY-2 ambulatory care Residency Program Directors (RPDs) meeting inclusion criteria. RPDs were requested to complete the questionnaire and disseminate it further to two preceptors of required rotations and all 2017-2018 residents. Results: In total, 108 responses were received out of a possible 595 and 10 were excluded due to the respondents not meeting inclusion criteria or the questionnaire was incomplete. Ninety-eight (16.5% response rate) underwent descriptive and statistical analysis. Fifty-two participants (53%) indicated they provide a comprehensive or broad delivery of direct patient care, 44 respondents (45%) provide activities within a moderate scope of practice, and 2 respondents (2%) engage in a narrow scope of practice. Forty-seven of the pharmacists (36%) stated they were functioning under a disease state specific collaborative practice agreement (CPA), 40 (31%) under a broad or comprehensive CPA, 24 (19%) under a protocol-driven, and 13 (10%) under a medication-specific agreement. Conclusion: Variability in PGY-2 ambulatory care residency programs was found with just half of participants functioning under a broad scope of pharmacist practice. Opportunities exist for programs to further standardize and advance program training environments.