Development of a Canadian family medicine pharmacy practice experience programme

Faculties of Pharmacy in Canada must currently provide students with at least 16 weeks of structured pharmacy practice experience. In recent years, the College of Pharmacy at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada has been developing more practice experience sites in non-institutional settings. One of these is at the Department of Family Medicine at Dalhousie University. This paper describes the development and expansion of clinical pharmacy services in the Family Medicine Clinics, provided by one of the College's clinical faculty members. With those services in place, the clinical pharmacist was ready to begin precepting pharmacy students at the Family Medicine Clinics. A proposal for a family medicine pharmacy practice experience programme was written, accepted and piloted in 1994-95. Following the success of that initial trial, the programme has continued and expanded over the years. Evaluation from the programme participants indicates that experience allows the pharmacy student to successfully complete programme objectives and gain an appreciation for working with other health care professionals to optimize patient care. The Family Medicine Clinics also appreciate the contributions made by the pharmacy students and value the interaction between students training in pharmacy and residents in family medicine.