Development and Validation of Entrustable Professional Activities for Provisionally Registered (Intern) Pharmacists in Australia

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to describe the development and validation of entrustable professional activities (EPAs) for a pharmacy intern training program in Australia. 

METHODS: Performance outcomes with EPAs suggested as an assessment in the intern year were identified and EPAs were developed. The EQual rubric, designed for EPAs in graduate medical education settings, was used to validate the EPAs. Eight subject matter experts were recruited to validate 14 EPAs using prespecified cutoffs in the EQual rubric to determine the degree of alignment with established key domains of the EPA construct. Descriptive statistics for the EQual rubric scores were calculated for each of the 14 EPAs overall and for each of the 3 domains. Any EPA falling below the prespecified cut score required revisions and a second round of validation. 

RESULTS: Eight responses were recorded for the first round of validation. Seven EPAs were below the discrete units of work cutoff (4.17); 2 of these EPAs were also below the EPA curricular role cutoff (4.00). All scores described in the EPAs as entrustable, essential, and important tasks of the profession were above the cutoff (4.00). Seven subject matter experts responded to the second round of validation. All 7 revised EPAs scored above the EQual rubric's overall cutoff of 4.07. 

CONCLUSION: Fourteen EPAs were validated for use with provisionally registered (intern) pharmacists. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the EQual rubric has been used in the evaluation and validation of pharmacy EPAs.