A Crisis of Clarity: When Everyone is Ordering from a Different Menu

This commentary explores the fragmented landscape of pharmacy education assessment frameworks and their impact on curricular design. Pharmacy education operates much like a restaurant kitchen where multiple stakeholders influence what appears on the menu. Tools such as the ACPE Standards 2025 (including COEPA and Appendix 1), ACCP Pharmacotherapy Toolkit, and NABP NAPLEX competencies all aim to clarify expectations, yet their misalignment creates ambiguity and inconsistency in defining the entry-level pharmacist, creating a confusing and inconsistent recipe. Our attempt to crosswalk these frameworks was unsuccessful, underscoring a critical insight: the solution is not to create an additional toolkit, but to harmonize the existing ones. Such scaffolding would provide clarity in delivering PharmD programs to prepare entry-level graduates across the Academy and decrease the administrative burden of interpreting these frameworks. To advance the quality and coherence of PharmD education, the Academy and other stakeholders must commit to a coordinated, collaborative effort to align these frameworks and build the missing scaffold.

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Publication Details

Journal
American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education
Published
2026-05-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajpe.2026.101992
Primary Topic
Critical Realism in Sociology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

A Crisis of Clarity: When Everyone is Ordering from a Different Menu

Aleda M.H. Chen, Kristine M Cline, Jennifer M. Trujillo
American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education
Critical Realism in Sociology
article

A Crisis of Clarity: When Everyone is Ordering from a Different Menu

Aleda M.H. Chen, Kristine M Cline, Jennifer M. Trujillo
article en

Abstract

This commentary explores the fragmented landscape of pharmacy education assessment frameworks and their impact on curricular design. Pharmacy education operates much like a restaurant kitchen where multiple stakeholders influence what appears on the menu. Tools such as the ACPE Standards 2025 (including COEPA and Appendix 1), ACCP Pharmacotherapy Toolkit, and NABP NAPLEX competencies all aim to clarify expectations, yet their misalignment creates ambiguity and inconsistency in defining the entry-level pharmacist, creating a confusing and inconsistent recipe. Our attempt to crosswalk these frameworks was unsuccessful, underscoring a critical insight: the solution is not to create an additional toolkit, but to harmonize the existing ones. Such scaffolding would provide clarity in delivering PharmD programs to prepare entry-level graduates across the Academy and decrease the administrative burden of interpreting these frameworks. To advance the quality and coherence of PharmD education, the Academy and other stakeholders must commit to a coordinated, collaborative effort to align these frameworks and build the missing scaffold.

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education
The Ohio State University (US), University of Montana (US), University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 6%
Critical Realism in Sociology
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