Assessment of pharmacy faculty members' opinions regarding required postgraduate pharmacy residencies.

PURPOSE Agreement between pharmacy faculty members and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) recommendations regarding the requirement of residency training to provide direct patient care or attain a position in academia is discussed. METHODS Faculty members of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy participated in a survey administered by an online survey tool. The survey contained a variety of yes/no, multiple choice, and Likert scale questions. Participants were asked to disclose whether they agreed with the ACCP recommendations. Other data collected included faculty demographics, individual awareness of the ACCP position statement, and postgraduate training recommendations before receiving the survey. RESULTS The survey was sent to 2414 faculty members, and 623 (26%) of those responded. A majority of the respondents (74.8%) identified themselves as pharmacy practice faculty. Of those who replied, 55.6% agreed that one year of residency training should be required to provide direct patient care. Approximately 64% agreed that a postgraduate year 1 residency should be required in order to be appointed as adjunct clinical faculty or preceptor of pharmacy students, while 50.1% agreed that two years of residency training should be required in order to be appointed to rank assistant professor. CONCLUSION A slight majority of faculty members responding to this survey agreed with recommendations in a 2006 ACCP position statement that proposed requiring residencies for all pharmacy students graduating from pharmacy school in order to attain positions in academia or settings providing direct patient care.