Examining the Alignment of Pharmacists' Daily Tasks, Employer-advertised Skills, and the Entrustable Professional Activities

Objective: To understand alignment of pharmacist jobs' daily tasks, employer-advertised skills, and pharmacy education of entrustable professional activities (EPAs).

Methods: The study team compiled the top 20 tasks pharmacists reported performing at least daily from the Occupational Information Network survey (2022), the top 50 employer-advertised skills from 89,819 pharmacist job postings in 2022 from Lightcast and the 13 EPAs from accreditation standards that define a practice-ready pharmacist. Two experienced faculty and licensed pharmacists mapped employer-advertised skills, each task performed at least daily, and the EPAs. Trends in alignment between what pharmacists report doing daily with these other stakeholder expectations were described.

Results: Of the top 20 daily pharmacist tasks from the Occupational Information Network, 55% were categorized as product-centric. Legal compliance (30%) and prescription review (25%) were the employer-advertised skills most frequently mapped to these daily tasks. EPA 13 (pharmacy administration and operations) was the EPA most frequently mapped to daily tasks (45%). EPA 8 (education of the patient and others on medications) was the second most frequently mapped EPA to 30% of daily tasks.

Conclusion: Prescription processing, legal compliance, and operational pharmacy management are the most essential daily functions of today's pharmacists, contrasting with the person-centered nature of the EPAs. Amid the curricular evolution that has occurred to meet the future vision of pharmacy practice, programs must, nonetheless, continue to teach the skills required for the existing marketplace to ensure that graduates are practice-ready for today's positions.