A Modified Delphi Involving Laboratory Faculty to Define Essential Skills for Pharmacy Graduates

Objective. To define essential skills for Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) graduates that are needed in the four most common sectors of pharmacy practice as determined by expert faculty who instruct within pharmacy skills laboratories. Methods. A three-round Delphi method was used to establish consensus. In the first round, participants were asked what skills were needed by students at entry to practice in community, health-system, ambulatory care, and managed care pharmacy settings. In rounds two and three, participants were asked to rate each skill with a level of importance using a 10-point Likert scale (1=not important to 10=very important). Results. In round one, participants produced a collective list of 289 essential skills. These skill statements were sent to participants in rounds two and three to assign a level of importance. After the third round, participants reached consensus using a mean level of importance for a final list of 69 community pharmacy skills, 47 health-system, 60 ambulatory care, and 15 managed care skills. These skills were then mapped to entrustable professional activities domains for schools and colleges pharmacy to use as a resource when assessing core competency development in the curriculum. Conclusion. The Delphi technique was used successfully with expert pharmacy skills laboratory faculty to identify laboratory-focused essential skills that recent PharmD graduates should have prior to entering community, health-system, ambulatory care, or managed care pharmacy practice. These essential skills can be used to guide curriculum development, develop milestone markers, and help ensure students are practice ready.