Staging a Reflective Capstone Course to Transition PharmD Graduates to Professional Life

Objective: To develop and implement a capstone course that would allow students to reflect on their development as a professional, assess and share their achievement of the college's outcomes, complete a professional portfolio, establish a continuing professional development plan, and prepare to enter the pharmacy profession.

Design: Students were required to complete a hybrid course built around 4 online and inclass projects during the final semester of the curriculum.

Assessment: Faculty used direct measures of learning, such as reading student portfolios and program outcome reflections, evaluating professional development plans, and directly observing each student in a video presentation. All projects were evaluated using standardized rubrics. Since 2012, all graduating students met the course's minimum performance requirements.

Conclusion: The course provided an opportunity for student-based summative evaluation, direct observation of student skills, and documentation of outcome completion as a means of evaluating readiness to enter the profession.