Introduction: This study evaluates two pharmacy student placement programs conducted in 2024 at Hospital A and Hospital B. The focus is on assessing the effectiveness of hands-on versus observational learning experiences in enhancing pharmacy students' skills and career interests.
Methods: In the Hospital A placement, students were assigned one preceptor and engaged in a hands-on component complemented by digital resources, including electronic medication management system logins. This setup allowed students to practice medication history-taking under appropriate supervision, following Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs). In contrast, the Hospital B placement was observational, designed to expose students to a variety of hospital pharmacist roles and environments. A post-placement survey was administered to 26 students to gather feedback on skill acquisition, clinical knowledge, and perceptions of hospital pharmacy roles.
Results: Students at Hospital A reported significant improvements in their medication history-taking skills and clinical knowledge, largely due to hands-on practice with EPAs. Most participants expressed increased interest in pursuing careers in hospital pharmacy and indicated a willingness to apply for internships at the hospital. In contrast, students in the observational program at Hospital B noted limited skill development due to the lack of direct clinical activities, although they valued the exposure to hospital operations.
Conclusion: The findings highlight the importance of active learning through EPAs in enhancing practical skills and fostering career interest among pharmacy students. The study suggests that hands-on experiences are more effective than observational placements in promoting skill acquisition and engagement in hospital pharmacy careers.

Introduction: Pharmacists must assess the legal and ethical implications of prescriptions they dispense to ensure compliance with legal standards and provide quality patient care. Australian higher education programs must equip graduates with the necessary skills to do this. Despite a range of training and educational interventions, pre-registrant pharmacists report struggling with how to respond when faced with scripts that don’t meet legal requirements. There is therefore a need to bolster legal and ethical reasoning skills among pre-registrant pharmacists in the context of dispensing prescriptions.
Methods: Two activities were developed. A didactic lecture was delivered at the start of the program and outlined key sources of legal and ethical obligations to support decision-making and a framework to that can be used to address and resolve legal and ethical problems in the context of dispensing. A lectorial was delivered as a capstone activity at the end of the program and provided learners with practical opportunities to make legally and ethically defensible decisions about dispensing prescriptions. These were supplemented with an online discussion board where students could discuss legal and ethical dilemmas encountered in their practice.
Results: Activities were delivered in 2024 to 82 students by an academic specialising in legal aspects of pharmacy practice. Feedback on both was positive, as indicated by 100% agreement with the statement “I have developed the ability to practically apply knowledge of the field(s) I am studying” in a program evaluation survey (n=56). There was robust discussion both during the live session and afterwards on the online discussion board. These will be retained in future years and expanded to other universities with student feedback used to refine content.
Conclusions: Training pre-registrant pharmacists to make legally and ethically defensible decisions about dispensing prescriptions is necessary both for their clinical practice and for education providers to meet accreditation requirements.

Introduction: The Medicines-Related Consultation Assessment Tool (MR-CAT) is a validated global assessment tool used by healthcare professionals to assess pharmacists’ consultations by direct observation of practice. Many community pharmacists work in isolation and may struggle to find a colleague to assess them. Therefore, self-assessment may provide an appropriate alternative. Guidance has been developed on the use of the MR-CAT for self-assessment of consultations. The aim of this study is to assess the acceptability and feasibility of using of MR-CAT as a self-assessment tool by pharmacists and pharmacy education professionals.
Methods: Newly qualified pharmacists on a post-registration programme for pharmacists in England and their education supervisors were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews to explore their views on using the MR-CAT for self-assessment of consultations. All participants were expected to have had – as a minimum - experience of using the MR-CAT as a self-assessment tool to be eligible to take part. Interviews were conducted remotely (online or telephone) with participants from across England. Interviews captured details of each participant’s career to date, as well as perspectives of newly qualified pharmacists and education supervisors around the use of MR-CAT as a self-assessment tool.
The interviews focused on the extent that self-assessment using the MR-CAT can enable pharmacists to:
1. Conceptualise what good practice looks like
2. Identify strengths and development areas in relation to consultation skills
3. Facilitate reflection on practice
4. Support professional development
Anonymised transcripts were analysed using iterative thematic analysis to identify the key themes arising from each of the questions on the interview schedule. The analysis compared the experiences of newly qualified pharmacists and education supervisors whilst also drawing conclusions for the whole cohort of participants.
Results: Data collection took place in Autumn 2024 with results reported in spring 2025.

Introduction: Clinical pharmacists at Auckland City Hospital undertake eight key clinical activities as part of their role e.g. medicines reconciliation, patient counselling. Intern (preregistration) pharmacists, and pharmacists new to the department, must demonstrate that they can complete these activities to a set standard. Interns were assessed using the same four-point scale as the national intern training programme (not yet competent /borderline /competent /competent with merit). Pharmacists new to the department were assessed during their induction as competent or not competent. Both scales lacked clear definition and were open to interpretation between supervisors. We aimed to introduce a more robust tool to define and standardise assessments.
Method: In 2021, following a review of the literature, we introduced the five-point assessment scale associated with Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) for the eight clinical activities. Level 3 of the scale was expanded to 3a – c for interns, to reflect the nuanced stages of their progress towards level 4 by the end of the year. Registered pharmacists must achieve level 4 before working unsupervised on the wards. An online survey was utilised to elicit feedback from staff on useability and acceptability.
Results: Feedback indicates staff find the entrustment scale easy to understand and use. It provides a more informative evaluation of intern’s progress across the year and allows gaps to be addressed in a timely manner. For pharmacists new to the department who achieve level 4, it provides assurance to the service and to themselves, that they have the skills to work independently. The scale provides a clear description of a learner’s level of independence, making it easier for new supervisors to provide support at the appropriate time.
Conclusion: Entrustment decision scales in the workplace are acceptable to assessors; support intern and new pharmacist development; and provide quality assurance of pharmacy service delivery.

Introduction: Entrustment-supervision scales (ES), used to assess Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs), have been widely adopted in healthcare education. However, inconsistencies persist in making entrustment decisions among assessors. This may be partly due to limited understanding of entrustment and a lack of overt language of trust within ES. Therefore, the authors aimed to develop and validate an ES that integrates the concepts and language of trust.
Methods: In collaboration with a linguistic expert, subject matter experts in competency-based education developed an ES integrating trust-related concepts and language. Pharmacists with over two years’ experience with workplace-based assessment (WBA) were invited to participate in a two-round validation survey. Participants rated scale descriptions on a 1-4 scale of clarity and comprehension and provided narrative feedback, which informed refinements after each round. A scale face validity index (s-FVI) was calculated with an acceptance threshold set at a minimum s-FVI of 0.83.
Results: In 2024, 13 pharmacists (community n=1; hospital n=5; academia n=7) with a mean 9.15 (SD=7.63) years’ experience with WBA completed the validation survey. The initial survey round resulted in a s-FVI of 0.39. Narrative feedback from round one, focusing on concern of the use of the words “loved ones” and the definition of proximity of supervision, was used to refine the ES. In the second round, ten of the original 13 participants responded and a satisfactory s-FVI score (0.88) was achieved. The narrative feedback from the second round suggested that the refined scale was “clear and logical,” further validating the s-FVI.
Conclusion: An ES integrating trust-related concepts and language was developed, refined and validated, potentially easing challenges associated with making entrustment decisions for EPAs. Future research will investigate whether the revised ES improves EPA assessment consistency.

Introduction: Professionalism in pharmacy encompasses a spectrum of dispositions and behaviours, such as punctuality, accountability, appropriate communication, serving the community with respect, honesty, and compassion. However, assessing professionalism is complex due to its multifaceted nature. Clear expectations and effective tools are necessary to foster professionalism in pharmacy education. The aim of this presentation is to shed light on the shady concept of professionalism for pharmacy educators.
Methods: We used a definition of professionalism to perform a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis on an existing rubric. This rubric was used to evaluate students’ written reflections of professionalism during their clinical placements. Results of the SWOT analysis were used to construct a framework for teaching and assessing professionalism in pharmacy.
Results: Strengths of the existing rubric included that it invited students to reflect broadly on their clinical placement experiences, allowing students to select and highlight relevant instances of professionalism. Weaknesses involved students not making connections to professionalism in their reflections, and the large variation in features of professionalism that were reported. Opportunities included altering the guidance to students about the assignment by featuring a definition of professionalism. Threats included the placement setting, which may limit the features of professionalism that students experienced. The constructed framework features four dimensions, representing how a pharmacist behaves, how they relate to others, how they improve themselves, and how they engage with the profession and beyond.
Conclusion: We shed light on the shady concept of professionalism by identifying four dimensions of professionalism that can be taught and assessed. Pharmacy educators can use this framework to evaluate the rubrics they use to assess professionalism and adapt them to different contexts. Further research and iterative refinement of these materials will enhance their relevance and effectiveness in fostering professionalism in pharmacy education.