Pharmaceutical care plan examinations to identify students at risk for poor performance in advanced pharmacy practice experiences.

OBJECTIVES: 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.
METHODS: 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.
RESULTS: TPCP scores but not lecture-based examination scores successfully identified 6 of 10 students who ultimately performed poorly in their APPEs.
CONCLUSION: 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.