The pharmacy practice experience program at Texas A&M HSC College of Pharmacy is developed to meet the mission of the College and the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) accreditation standards.  The pharmacy practice experiential training is in compliance with the Texas State Board of Pharmacy (TSBP) Laws, Rules and Regulations.  The College’s curriculum supports the pharmacy practice experience program, which is divided into Introductory and Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience.

The Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (IPPE) occurs over the first three years of the program.  The IPPE is designed to coordinate with the curriculum to direct the student to prepare, participate, and perform at a level expected to enter the advanced practice components.

During the first professional year, the pharmacy student (P1 student) is required to complete a client-based, service learning requisite of 40 hours. In the second professional year, the student is required to complete both community and institutional pharmacy practice experiences. Each experience is for one day each week for 15 weeks and includes two days for student reflection.  In the third professional year, the student is involved in health fairs, public health service, community service outreach, and other activities progressing in their Advanced Patient Care Class and Pharmaceutical Care Lab. 

Preceptors, who volunteer their time, energy, knowledge and experience, mentor each student and provides the College the opportunity to use actual work sites to perform at a level, which permits the student to advance into the Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience.

The Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) occurs during the fourth professional year (P4).  During the APPE each student completes six experiences.  Each experience is a six-week, intensive, hands-on encounter. Each experience requires a minimum of 240 hours.  Four (4) required experiences are in specified areas (acute care general medicine, ambulatory care, hospital/health-system pharmacy, and community practice) and two (2) experiences are selected from the elective areas such as drug information, hospital, special populations (pediatrics, geriatrics, psychiatry), surgery, critical care, nutrition, rural health, women’s health, academic, research (toxicology, drug delivery systems, drug development, social and behavioral sciences), regulatory, professional society, industry, and others.

The TSBP internship competencies are attained by completion of the required introductory and advanced rotations.  During the introductory practice experiences, students are expected to be familiar with and complete the competencies at an introductory level.  By the end of the advanced practice experiences, the student shall master the required competencies described by Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, the Texas State Board of Pharmacy, and the Texas A&M Health Science Center Rangel College of Pharmacy.