Pharmaceutical Care Plan Examinations to Identify Students at Risk for Poor Performance in Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences

To evaluate early predictors of advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) performance using either timed pharmaceutical care plan (TPCP) reports of 4 case histories or traditional lecture-based pharmacotherapy course examinations.Statistical process control (SPC) methods were used to identify a group of third-year pharmacy students "at risk" for poor APPE performance (defined as an APPE grade point average of < 3.0). Examination scores from an integrated lecture-based pharmacotherapy sequence were used for comparison.TPCP scores but not lecture-based examination scores successfully identified 6 of 10 students who ultimately performed poorly in their APPEs.Adaptation of SPC methods to assess student performance during problem-based learning (PBL) case reports is a useful technique for identifying students "at risk" for poor APPE performance.