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Abstract

Pharmacist as one of the health care team is characterized by specific competencies mostly achieved during formal education. Direct experiences are the main activity in clerkship programs which was then limited since the COVID-19 pandemic. To analyze students’ competency achievement of modified hospital pharmacy clerkship program in the Department of Pharmacist Profession Education, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) during the pandemic. Students’ competency outcome was analyzed from the comprehensive examination score obtained after their clerkship program. Data was collected from three batches of students (a total of 163 students) who undertook the clerkship during the pandemic. The difference in competency outcome was analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test. An in-depth interview with student representatives was conducted to gain perspective on the modified program. The method of the hospital pharmacy clerkship program in the three batches was different mostly related to the proportion of online and offline activities. There were no significant differences (p-value <0.05) in competency outcomes seen in all three areas of competence in hospital pharmacy, such as drug management, pharmaceutical care, and drug use, as well as management support. This finding indicates that the modification of the clerkship program was able to maintain the quality of the learning process and resulted in similar outcomes. Modifying clerkship programs in pharmacy should be evaluated to assure quality and result in competency achievement. Additional efforts should be taken to fill in the gap from lack of practice and direct experiences during the pandemic‎.

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