Community pharmacy internships in pharmacy undergraduate programs in Brazil

Abstract

The pharmacy undergraduate programs are in curriculum change process. The experiential learning has essential role in the construction of knowledge and there is the gap in the literature about studies of this nature. This study describes organizational and pedagogical aspects of community pharmacy internships in pharmacy undergraduate programs in Brazil. This is a cross-sectional descriptive observational study on community pharmacy internships required by face-to-face pharmacy programs inaugurated before 2015 (n=288). Data were collected from documents and self-administered questionnaires by coordinators and/or teachers in charge of community pharmacy internships. The pharmacy programs (n=98) required a median of 2 [1;3] community pharmacy internships, totalizing 263.5 [146.5;405] hours, completed either in private pharmacies (76.5%; n=75), SUS pharmacies (53.1%; n=52) or university pharmacies (46.9%; n=45). Regarding pedagogical aspects, teachers visit the internship sites with a median of 5 [2;18.5] times semiannually, and only 39% (n=25) of the pharmacy programs require courses on both “social/behavioral/administrative sciences” and “clinical sciences” as a prerequisite for community pharmacy internships. The teaching-learning process most commonly used is “student observes preceptor and practices with supervision” and the assessment tool mostly used are oral/written reports (80.6%; n=79). The results reveal important organizational gaps in the internships required by pharmacy programs in Brazil, which may affect future professionals intending to work in community pharmacies.