About the Programs

Program Philosophy

The goal of the training experiences offered through the Pharmacy Practice Division at the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Florida A&M University is to develop competent pharmacy practitioners capable of providing excellent pharmaceutical care to patients and communities in which they serve. In order to accomplish this goal, a variety of training experiences ranging from introductory through advanced experiences have been developed. These exceptional training experiences are designed to provide students with the tools required to provide excellent pharmaceutical care.

Experiential Sites

Currently, the Pharmacy Practice Division provides experiential training in Tallahassee and the three instructional sites located in Jacksonville, Tampa and Miami. Each location has a Division Director to facilitate communication, faculty and administrative support staff dedicated solely for the purpose of experiential training. Through the use of cooperative affiliation agreements, students are afforded the best opportunities available throughout the State of Florida.

Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (IPPE)

The Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (IPPE) program at Florida A&M University was developed in response to the 2007 Accreditation Standards set forth by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education. Defined as pharmacy practice experiences offered in various environments during the early sequencing of the curriculum for the purposes of providing transitional experiential activities and active learning, IPPEs provide a continuum of education by instilling the philosophy of pharmaceutical care, facilitating and enhancing student professionalism, increasing student motivation for learning in the didactic curriculum, and promoting the self-learning process.

IPPE reviews the basic technical and distributive functions of pharmaceutical care, while providing students the opportunity to expand their knowledge base, practice their skills and develop professional attitudes in an actual pharmacy setting. Integrating classroom knowledge with experiential training becomes the cornerstone of the student’s education, inculcating professionalism while ensuring competency in pharmaceutical care. These experiences should commence in the first professional year (P1) and culminate in third professional year (P3).

A total of 300 experiential hours is required and the student may not matriculate to Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs) without attaining the total amount of hours and successfully achieving the educational outcomes.

The Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE)

The Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) encompasses the clinical aspects of pharmacy practice in the community and health systems environments. This portion of the experiential training provides an opportunity for active participation and in-depth professional experiences that enhance the acquisition of attitudes, skills, behaviors and judgment essential to facilitate the level of confidence, expertise and responsibility needed for independent and collaborative practice. Students participate in this APPE during their last professional year. The overall experience is composed of nine (9) experiences and three (3) research months – of the nine (9) experiences, there are six (6) required and three (3) elective ones. Electives come from a wide range of opportunities, i.e.: managed care, nutritional support, home infusion, family medicine, surgery, anesthesiology, to name a few. Each experience is approximately 4 weeks long with students working a minimum of 40 hours per week. The student’s professional attitude, knowledge, skills and behaviors are evaluated by the preceptor using the performance based evaluation system - SUCCESS.