Experiential Education in Greater Minnesota

A quote from Houle in 1980 describes experiential education as “education that occurs as a direct participation in the events of life.” The entire fourth year of the College of Pharmacy curriculum is dedicated to experiential education. This is 25 percent of the pharmacy school education. Pharmacy students are on Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs) for 45 weeks. They do a variety of experiences including, acute care, ambulatory care, community, institutional, patient care, and 15 weeks of elective APPEs of their choice. This allows students to select experiences based on their interests and educational need. 

With the addition of 50 pharmacy students in each class, additional experiential education sites were needed.  Prior to the opening of the University of Minnesota, College of Pharmacy, Duluth, the majority of APPEs were done in the Twin Cities and Rochester areas. In the year May 2005 to May 2006, there were 40 5-week APPEs in Greater Minnesota. Of these, the majority of them were in Rochester or Saint Cloud. At that time there were only three 5-week APPEs in the Duluth area. With the expansion, the College of Pharmacy also added Regional Hubs. These hubs include the areas within about a 40 mile radius including the cities of Brainerd, Bemidji, Duluth/Iron Range, Fergus Falls, Mankato, Rochester, and Saint Cloud. With the Regional Hubs, students are able to be in a hub or region for 15, 30, or 45 weeks. This allows a student to learn more about Greater Minnesota at multiple health care facilities.

During the period May 2006 to May 2007, 361 5-week APPEs were scheduled in Greater Minnesota. Of these, 155 were in the Duluth area.

The class of 2008 will start their APPEs on May 21, 2007. We have scheduled 278 APPEs in Greater Minnesota. Half of these are in the Duluth and Iron Range area.

The experiential education allows students to learn from practicing pharmacists, interact with other health care professionals, and care for patients in their community. This partnership has been a wonderful learning experience for the students and the preceptors in Greater Minnesota. The students are challenging our pharmacists and sharing information and technology that they know, while the pharmacists are sharing years of real life experiences with the pharmacy students. Author of The Austrailian, Katie Hamann, says that “Teaching by example is a two-way path.” This is evident in our partnership with experiential education in Greater Minnesota.