Sterile Compounding Knowledge, Skills, and Confidence Among Graduating Doctor of Pharmacy Students

Objective. To determine whether the exposure to sterile compounding in the pharmacy curriculum produces Doctor of Pharmacy graduates who are both competent and confident in the area of sterile compounding, and to identify additional variables that may predict student performance. Methods. Participants were recruited from the fourth-year pharmacy class of 2018 at one university. The students were asked to complete a questionnaire assessing the following domains: demographics, confidence in compounding performance, prior experience, and theoretical knowledge. A written assessment was followed by a faculty-evaluated practicum in which the students were required to prepare two sterile products using a standardized rubric. Results were analyzed with a Student t test and linear regression to determine differences in performance based upon prior experience, confidence, and theoretical knowledge. Results. Overall, the 158 students performed well on the knowledge and skill examination, achieving an average total score of 89.8%. Of the 158 total participants, the 122 survey respondents had an overall mean confidence score of 2.9 on a four-point Likert scale, with 40.2% of students scoring in the confident or very confident range of the survey. In our analysis, we found that neither prior compounding experience or self-rated confidence were predictive of students’ total score. Conclusion. The results of this study suggest that the inclusion of sterile compounding education and training in all four years of the pharmacy curriculum produces PharmD graduates who are competent, with varying levels of confidence in the area of sterile compounding.