Three College of Pharmacy faculty received the prestigious American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Award for Excellence in Assessment. Maria Miller Thurston, Pharm.D., assistant professor of pharmacy practice, Jill Augustine, Ph.D., PHARMD ‘12, MPH, director of assessment and assistant professor of pharmacy practice and pharmaceutical sciences, C. Lea Bonner, PHARMD ‘98, assistant dean for student affairs, received the award for their assessment program of the College’s Professional Development Network. The network, comprised of groups each with 25-30 pharmacy students, faculty advisers and interested alumni, is designed to enhance academic and career mentoring for student pharmacists.
The team developed an assessment program, detailed in the manuscript “Multimodal assessment of a co-curricular professional engagement program,” that utilizes year-specific tracking forms for students, a validated professionalism survey and evaluation surveys by students, faculty and alumni. Descriptive statistics and frequencies were used to compare completion rates of different activities and survey responses. Results from the surveys provided opportunities to improve the program to target necessary professionalism attitudes and behaviors.
The Award for Excellence in Assessment recognizes outstanding Doctor of Pharmacy assessment programs for their progress in developing and applying evidence of outcomes as part of the ongoing evaluation and improvement of pharmacy professional education. Recipients of this award are provided with an opportunity to present their work during the AACP annual meeting, and winning teams receive $1,200 stipend to cover travel and registration costs.
