Determination Of Predictors Impacting Performance On The Third-Year Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment At A Historically Black College Of Pharmacy

Introduction: The Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment (PCOA) is a standardized exam de-veloped by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) in 2008 to measure the curric-ulum in relation to student progress. The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of pre-admissions and pharmacy school variables on third-year student PCOA performance at a Histori-cally Black College or University (HBCU) College of Pharmacy.Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted using data from three cohorts of students who took the PCOA in their third professional year from 2015 to 2017. An independent samples t-test, correlation analysis, and multivariate linear regression were conducted to determine the re-lationship between student characteristics and the PCOA score.Results: The mean PCOA scaled score for the third-year pharmacy students was 349.6 +/- 46.20 while the mean Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT) percentile was 62.7 +/- 14.5. Most students (67%) self-identified as Black and the majority (54.9%) were female. The PCOA scores were correlated with the PCAT percentile (P <.001) and the cumulative grade point average (GPA) through the fall semester of the third professional year (P <.001). After adjusting for other factors, the cumulative GPA through the fall semester of the third professional year (P <.001) and PCAT percentiles (P <.001) remained predictive of students PCOA scores.Conclusions: The cumulative GPA through the third-year fall semester and PCAT percentiles are important factors in helping to predict PCOA scores among third year pharmacy students at a HBCU. (c) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.