Greetings, pharmacy students, preceptors, and faculty. This textbook, or more appropriately, guidebook, was created to fill an unmet need in the Doctor of Pharmacy curricula. While a significant portion of didactic curricula relevant to community pharmacy includes topics such as communication, pharmacotherapy, self-care, and other patient care skills, other non-clinical facets of community pharmacy practice may be missing. Based on feedback from pharmacists and faculty nationwide, community pharmacy topics such as human resource management, workflow optimization, implementing value-based clinical services, and other practice-based topics are typically covered in either electives or experiential education, if at all.
The goal of our guidebook is to introduce learners to content relevant to community pharmacy practice in the didactic setting. While this is not meant to replace any of the existing textbooks currently in use, we hope that it will serve in a standalone or complementary capacity in the curriculum. This text is intended for pharmacy students prior to embarking on their community pharmacy Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPE), giving them a practical understanding of different responsibilities of the community pharmacist. This text can also be used by community pharmacy preceptors on either IPPE or Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPE) to serve as a foundation for topic discussions and other learning activities.
Students and community pharmacy preceptors frequently comment that what is taught in the classroom does not mirror what occurs in real life. For this reason, each chapter of this guidebook intentionally includes authors who are full-time community pharmacists, pharmacy practice faculty, and experts in the content area (e.g. CPA and attorneys). This was done to provide learners with practical, real-life content relevant to what they need to know in community pharmacy practice, in a format that can be used in the classroom or experiential setting. We believe that you will find this guidebook relevant, concise, and practical.