Should NAPLEX Pass Rates affect Residency Acceptance?
NAPLEX Scores fell a little, but to see a 21% NAPLEX pass rate and a 25% MPJE pass rate at individual colleges of pharmacy should rattle Residency Program Directors a little bit, wondering if the students they've accepted in their program will be able to get licenses on their first try.
While pharmacy schools celebrate match rates of 75% for PGY-1 in Phase I and can expect that number to go well above 80% once the Phase II numbers are in, there is a huge problem that residency program directors have to deal with - students who will not pass the NAPLEX and/or MPJE in time.
This pharmacy school class was accepted at a little over 82% across the country and the next two graduating classes trend even further upward toward 86%, so it's reasonable NAPLEX and MPJE scores will only continue to fall as the number of residencies continue to rise and must accept students from a smaller pool of applicants.
NAPLEX Audio
While the best thing is for students to use APPEs as a time to reinforce areas of NAPLEX study, invariably, many will leave it to the last minute. As we are now a few months from many students taking the NAPLEX, all of a sudden, they wonder why in the last 3 1/2 years, they didn't find time to start their preparation. My advice regarding the NAPLEX is to take advantage of audio and just start listening on your commute and on your breaks.
The Memorizing Pharmacology Podcast?is free and can help in that regard.
As for taking a deeper dive and preparing for pharmacology and pharmacotherapeutic challenges, you can try out the course here at:
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where you can get quizzes for many of the questions that come along with pharm.
MPJE
The MPJE is a hot mess with some states having incredibly difficult exams and others just not being so hard. I recommend the RPDs help assemble the cohort that's coming in to study for the MPJE together as each fellow resident that fails makes more work for the residents that pass. It's an opportunity for them to come together before the year starts and gain those important bonds that will help them get through residency.
I know TLDRPharmacy.com has individual study guides for the MPJE that you might want to look at, I don't get any recompense for this referral, but it just seems like a no-brainer to start with materials someone has already put together for you
Residency is hard enough; having to study for a retake is incredibly stressful, so I can't recommend enough that students start studying now.
Pharmacist
1 年If someone has 100 applicants and they need to reduce that number it would matter. All other things being equal, this would certainly be the tie breaker.
Agile Consultant Pharmacist Driving Quality Outcomes- Entrepreneur-Intrapreneur- Team Player- Strategic Thinker- Human
1 年I don’t care what a test says any day of the week. I care about the person, their appetite for learning, and their knowledge of people and drugs. The tests have always sucked at showing us who was a great pharmacist. A program questioning a candidate should have zero issue with the school since they can interview the candidate in Dec, again before the match. At the most *SARCSAM here* awesome interview I had an 8 hour… you read that right 8 hour on-site interview which included an hour and a half test… I was done at hour 4… I completed the process but completely lost and interest in a program where part of the interview was direction to say hello to the staff pharmacists because apparently it was an issue. I say this as someone who did fine on the tests. I learned more valuable skills about working in healthcare from years waiting tables that I know never got tested … but make me a great pharmacist. No one with a heart for patient care, should weigh their career on a test. Not. A. Single. Person. Has. Ever. Asked. Me. How. Many. Times. I. Took. A. Test. OR about my score.
Agile Consultant Pharmacist Driving Quality Outcomes- Entrepreneur-Intrapreneur- Team Player- Strategic Thinker- Human
1 年No
Professor, Department of Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Studies at Binghamton University
1 年Tony - another issue to pursue in one of your podcasts is that there is a false narrative being given to students bound for industry that NAPLEX/MPJE don't matter. So some of the schools best students are not taking the exams (so pass rates appear lower). I think being a licensed pharmacist is important for a long term career .
Professor, Department of Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Studies at Binghamton University
1 年With PCOA sunsetting, PCAT becoming optional at most schools, deidentified data given to schools with their exam results and the new NAPLEX Blueprint all schools are struggling to identify predictors of NAPLEX pass rates. "Hot mess" about sums it up.