Participants’ perceptions of a residency teaching certificate program: the quality, impact and benefits

BACKGROUND: Currently, there are no accreditation requirements for pharmacy resident teaching certificate programs (RTCPs) but rather suggested guidelines and documents for individual programs to follow. RTCP curriculums are often “handed-down” from past personnel and vary based on individual interpretation. Quality improvement may be overlooked when programs do not report to governing bodies. OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this quality improvement project was threefold: 1) to identify past RTCP participants’ perceptions regarding program seminars, activities, and requirements; 2) to determine the short-term and long-term impact on participant careers and interaction with learners; and 3) to improve the program to meet participants’ needs. METHODS: A 25 item Qualtrics survey was sent to 93 past pharmacy residents who completed the RTCP. Delivery of the survey was confirmed to 89 previous residents. Participants provided consent and were given 12 days to complete the survey. Data was collected and coded by the research team independently. RESULTS: The participants hold positions in a variety of roles, with 68.3% of participants currently holding a non-academia position. The top five most beneficial activities during the RTCP were: giving a large room lecture, facilitating small group learning, developing test questions, delivering professional CE, and meeting with their teaching mentor. Most seminar topics were beneficial to residents during the RTCP, with over two-thirds of the topics (n=23) found beneficial by at least 90% of the participants. A total of 92.9% of respondents said that the most beneficial aspect of having an assigned mentor was the teaching advice and feedback provided. CONCLUSIONS: The perceptions and beliefs of past RTCP participants were obtained regarding how beneficial the programming, activities, and mentorship offered were during and after RTCP completion. Quality improvement ideas from this work include redistribution of time in seminars compared to hands-on activities, the adoption of tracks or concentrations within the RTCP, and the creation of mentor training and development.