Educating students for practice: educational outcomes and community experience.

The education of pharmacists in the United States integrates classroom and experiential learning. Two organizations played a key role in determining the current education of pharmacy students. They are the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. The curriculum offered today provides opportunities for students to learn and achieve ability-based outcomes in both didactic and experiential courses. This review of pharmacy education focuses generally on the national leadership of pharmacy education both past and present and specifically on outcomes of practice that students are expected to achieve. Included in the discussion are recommendations for how preceptors in a community practice model can build on the college curriculum by recognizing and incorporating ability-based outcomes into their activities of the introductory and advanced practice courses.