Report of the executive vice president. Maintaining the momentum

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Winter 1998 by Penna, Richard P

The recently concluded AACP program and fiscal year continued the theme established in prior years to serve the needs of our members efficiently, promptly, accurately, and happily. The programs, projects, publications, and appearances that constitute AACP staff services and functions span a spectrum of activities that is described within the AACP strategic plan. For this reason, this report (as were prior reports) will be organized around the AACP strategic plan and AACP's vision and mission statements.

AACP STRATEGIC PLAN

Goal I - AACP will stimulate, support, and disseminate educational innovations and technology that are applicable to pharmaceutical education.

AACP Institute. The third AACP Institute was held at the Xerox Document University and Training Center in Leesburg, Virginia, from May 29 to June 2,1998. Twenty-five schools sent five-member teams. Shortened from five to four days, the Institute focused on the curricular change process, problembased learning, active-learning pedagogies, service learning, abilities-based education, and the development of specific implementation plans by the individual teams. Observers from the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education and the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry attended. Financial support for this year's Institute was provided by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Procter & Gamble, SmithKline Beecham, and Wyeth-Ayerst. AACP plans to offer the 1999 Institute from May 21 to 25, 1999.

Center for the Advancement of Pharmaceutical Education. The Center for the Advancement of Pharmaceutical Education (CAPE) developed programs for AACP Teachers Seminars, annual meeting pre-sessions, and the AACP interim meetings. Many of these programs focused on nontraditional education. Teachers Seminar themes followed recommendations of the AACP Academic Sections Coordinating Committee and focused on faculty team building across disciplines in 1997.

At its recent meeting, the CAPE Educational Outcomes advisory panel revised CAPE's educational outcomes. It has been more than three years since the CAPE Educational Outcomes were published and distributed to AACP member schools. In 1997, the AACP Board of Directors determined that in light of the continued evolution of pharmacy practice and the roles and functions of pharmacists (e.g., manage drug therapy, perform physical assessments, initiate/modify drug therapy under collaborative care agreements with physicians), a review and possible revision of the educational outcomes was needed. The panel was reconvened and will complete its work in the fall of 1998.

Master Teacher/Teaching Excellence Development Resources for Health Professions Educators. Consistent with and building upon the activities of the CAPE Advisory Panel on Master Teacher, AACP joined with its sister organizations in the Federation of Associations of Schools of the Health Professions (FASHP), Western University of Health Sciences, and California State Polytechnic University Pomona to develop educational modules to support faculty development in teaching/learning skills, scholarship as outlined by the Carnegie Foundation, skills in documenting teaching/learning excellence, and skills in influencing change within the academy. A multi-organizational curriculum planning group met in September 1997 to prepare a curricular framework for the outcomes and content of the project. The goals of the program are to:

elevate teaching as a respected activity of health professions faculty through scholarly inquiry and development; provide developmental processes and opportunities to assist faculty in adopting successful learner-centered teaching methods;

promote the scholarship of teaching as integral to faculty roles and responsibilities;

assist faculty in mastering methods to document scholarly teaching/learning activities;

develop a community of "like-minded" educators committed to the advancement of teaching excellence;

promote a dialogue about teaching/learning among faculty members at the local and national levels; and

build a framework for a system of recognition of achievement, quality, and excellence that may have a positive effect on faculty rewards and careers.

The proposed seven-module curriculum will make use of multieducational technologies integrated in a Web-based framework. Steps are underway to assess developmental and implementation costs, existing courseware, areas of support, and the potential market for this program.

FIPSE Project. AACP continued its work on a project funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE), Mentoring Partnerships to Foster the Dissemination and Adaptation of Models to Facilitate Expansion of AbilityBased Education in Schools of Pharmacy. AACP is working with the following schools on this project: Auburn, Drake, Houston, Illinois at Chicago, Maryland, Mercer, Mississippi, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, Purdue, St. Louis, and Wilkes. The project will disseminate information to these and other AACP member schools to assist them in developing ability-based educational programs. The project concludes in September 1998.