Mapping the postgraduate year one pharmacy accreditation standards to the core entrustable professional activities

Introduction: Postgraduate year one (PGY1) pharmacy residency is a common training path for pharmacy graduates. As the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) have published the Core Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) as a standard for new pharmacy graduates, mapping these competencies to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) PGY1 pharmacy residency standards may allow for progression tracking. Methods: Using group consensus, the guidance documents from the ASHP PGY1 pharmacy residency standards and the AACP Core EPAs for new pharmacy graduates were compared and mapped. Results: The ASHP PGY1 pharmacy residency standards included one additional tier (ie, goals) when evaluating structural levels compared with the AACP Core EPAs. All of the 15 AACP Core EPAs mapped to at least one ASHP educational objective. In addition, all of the ASHP educational objectives mapped to the Core EPAs except for one objective in Patient Care and four in the Leadership and Management competency areas. Discussion: With only a slight difference in structure and a small gap between ASHP education objectives and AACP EPAs, tracking of progression from new pharmacy graduate to postgraduate pharmacy resident may be possible. Greater consensus around leveling and general use with EPAs will provide further insight.