Evaluation of pharmacy students' clinical interventions on advanced pharmacy practice experiences at a non-teaching hospital

Purpose: To evaluate clinical interventions of pharmacy students on advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPE) at a community non-teaching hospital by assessment of clinical interventions for estimated cost savings, intervention class, and acceptance rate.

Methods: Clinical interventions of 69 fourth-year pharmacy students on Medication Safety (n=13), Advanced Institutional (n=17) and Internal Medicine (n=39) APPE were collected from June 2009 to July 2011.  Students documented daily clinical interventions on a data collection form. Interventions were classified into the following areas: therapeutic (antibiotic recommendations, medication initiation/discontinuation, therapeutic interchanges), safety (dose evaluations, lab evaluation, drug interactions, allergy clarification, medication order clarification), quality assurance (medication history, duplicate avoidance), intravenous to oral route conversions, and information/education (drug information, patient education).  The data were entered into a pharmacy intervention database for analysis of estimated cost savings, intervention class, and acceptance rates.

Results: A total of 1007 clinical interventions were attempted (126 from Medication Safety APPE, 141 Advanced Institutional, 740 Internal Medicine).  Acceptance rate for all interventions was 96.5%. The total estimated cost savings was $119,401. Types and estimated cost savings of accepted interventions included: therapeutic (n=117, $18,489), safety (n=119, $18,207), quality assurance (n=84, $12,852), intravenous to oral (n=206, $3,451), and information/education (n=446, $66,402). Internal medicine APPE students contributed to most of the therapeutic (96.1%), safety (94.9%) and quality assurance (96.6%) interventions.

Conclusion: Pharmacy students on APPE at a community non-teaching hospital have multiple opportunities to participate in clinical activities, interact and collaborate with other healthcare professionals, and significantly impact patient care through clinical interventions, while also contributing to pharmacy cost savings.