In 1992, pharmacy education began in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the foundation of the first College of Pharmacy1. Since then, there has been an increase in the number of pharmacy programs in the country with eight programs offering the Bachelor's Degree in Pharmacy (BSc. Pharm) and three programs offering the Doctor in Pharmacy Degree (PharmD)2. In addition to undergraduate programs, several colleges now offer the Master of Science in Clinical Pharmacy Degree, which provides students with more experience in rotations in the hospital setting as well as experience in research methods and principles2. Despite the increased numbers of pharmacy programs in the UAE, hospital pharmacy practice is still evolving3. Pharmacy curriculums are not standardized across the country, with the majority still offering a 4- or 5-year BSc. Pharm degree4. Academic institutions have only recently begun to offer the Doctor in Pharmacy (PharmD) program, with a focus on experiential education built into the professional program2. As a result, many institutions lack sufficient experience in hospital, community, and clinical pharmacy practice, with most programs still offering limited time in experiential education leading up to graduation4,5. Consequently, this aspect adversely impacts the practice readiness of pharmacy graduates. Recent results have demonstrated that BSc. Pharmacy graduates are less likely to be career ready than PharmD graduates6.

To close this gap and ensure that pharmacy graduates are practice ready, the Abu Dhabi Department of Health (DOH) established a postgraduate 6-month program, which can be completed in the community or hospital setting7. The 6-month internship program requires specific areas of practice to be completed to ensure that pharmacy graduates are ready to start working as professionals at the end of training. These areas of practice included pharmacy operations (receiving prescriptions, reviewing prescriptions, dispensing), patient care (patient interviewing, medication education, drug-drug interaction resolution), drug information, business management (understanding inventory and financial management in the practice), medication safety and quality, pharmacy federal law, and insurance issues7. Once interns complete this training period they are eligible to take for the Department of Health Licensing Examination (LE) and obtain their licence to practice as a pharmacist in Abu Dhabi (UAE). We describe our experience in implementing a pharmacy internship program in the UAE and describe the program outcomes.

The pharmacy internship program was implemented at a multi-specialty quaternary care facility, which is a unique extension of a US-based institution in Abu Dhabi. This institution is a 360-bed hospital with state-ofthe-art technology and is recognized as being Joint Commission International (JCI) and Magnet accredited and having Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) level 7 certification. The institution is also the only Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) provider in the country and currently offers a Post-graduate Year One (PGY1) pharmacy residency program with full accreditation status through the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). The department also hosts pharmacy trainees at various stages of their career, offering college of pharmacy student placements, clinical observership programs, and research observership programs for undergraduate and post-graduate pharmacy trainees.

Over the 5-year period, 53 pharmacy students from several pharmacy colleges in the UAE were accepted into the program. All interns completed the 6-month training program and no interns withdrew or were dismissed from the program. In total, 43 (81%) interns were involved in research projects and 10 (19%) were involved in a medication use evaluation project. Pharmacy interns quickly became an integral part of the pharmacy operations covering 0.5 FTE of a pharmacy technician in ambulatory settings and 0.5 FTE of a pharmacy technician in inpatient settings. Since completing the program, 19% (10/53) of the pharmacy interns continued to work in the pharmacy department, 40% (21/53) are currently in practice in hospitals/ healthcare institutions, 8% (4/53) have entered pharmacy residency training, and 9% (5/53) are pursuing higher education (MSc. or PhD degrees).

Table 2 shows the outcomes of the post-internship survey. It was completed by 85% (45/53) of the pharmacy interns and in general showed a high level of satisfaction with the program. The average weighted score was 4.6 on a scale from 1 to 5. In total, 98% and 100% of interns strongly agreed with or agreed with the items “willingness to work for the organization again” and “recommending the organization to other colleagues”, respectively. These results show that the interns found the learning environment and professional development to have been positive during their training period. In addition, 89% (40/45) of interns felt that they were well prepared to join the pharmacy internship program. Additionally, 51% (23/45) felt that additional focus in their undergraduate education on clinical pharmacy practice, as well as soft skills (such as communication, stress management, and time management) would make them more prepared to join a pharmacy internship. Interns provided excellent feedback on the design and structure of the program, as well as information on areas for improvement, which was used to improve the program over time. Some changes that resulted from the post-internship surveys was the addition of an automation, informatics rotation (required), financial management/pharmacy inventory rotation (elective), and unit-based pharmacy rotation. Another area of improvement noted was the restrictions placed on pharmacy interns to independently perform certain functions, such as verifying medication orders, dispensing medications to patients, counselling patients, and performing pharmacotherapy consultations.

This article describes our experience of implementing a pharmacy internship program at a quaternary care facility over the past 5 years. The program trained 53 interns who later pursued PGY1 pharmacy residency programs, post-graduate pharmacy education (PhD or Master's Degrees), or employment in health-care systems pharmacy practice. In total, 19% (10/53) of our interns stayed in our organization, which is an indication of the quality of training they received and their desire to continue to be employed by the organization.

In contrast to other pharmacy internship programs, which are completed during the student's school year, our program is unique in that the training experience was provided after graduation, thus allowing interns to fully dedicate themselves to this experience11,12. This approach also provided more flexibility in helping interns to improve over time and engage in research projects, which covers 6 months of the training program. This advantage would not be achievable if the program had a different structure.

One of the key components of our program is the experience it provides in conducting research. Many residents went on to publish or present their research projects at national and international conferences. In addition to their experience in direct patient care, we believe their research experience increases their readiness to join pharmacy residency programs. Although we have not assessed the attitude of graduate interns in relation to this aspect, 8% (4/53) of our interns went on to pursue PGY1 pharmacy residency programs, which is an encouraging outcome.

Another strength of our program is the presence of highly qualified preceptors. They all meet the precepting criteria as described in the ASHP residency accreditation standards13. These require preceptors to show continuous professional development in order to maintain their status as preceptors. Preceptor development portfolios are maintained at our institution and are updated every 2 years. In order to be re-appointed, these portfolios must be maintained and preceptors must attend mandatory preceptor development seminars.

As the number of interns increased, a challenge was how preceptors would be able to provide dedicated teaching time while performing their daily clinical duties. Most of our preceptors are front-line pharmacists who are responsible for both patient care and for precepting residents, interns, and students. To address this issue, we implemented a layered learning model in the third year of the program, such that PGY1 pharmacy residents in their second year would act as co-preceptors to pharmacy interns, while the latter would also participate in precepting Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (IPPE) students toward the end of their internship. This approach provided our residents with an excellent learning experience, because it more effectively integrated teaching components into their residency training, while giving interns the opportunity to gain first-hand experience in training pharmacy students. Thus, the learning environment was very positive, allowing us to sustain our training programs without compromising patient care. Our experience was also in line with previous research on layered learning models in pharmacy education and their positive outcomes in patient care14,15.

Another challenge is that pharmacy interns in the UAE are not allowed to dispense medications, directly counsel patients, compound sterile preparations, or perform medication reconciliation. These activities are routinely performed by pharmacy interns under the direct supervision of qualified preceptors in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia16,17. This aspect is a hindrance to obtaining the full benefit of internship because mastering many of these activities requires “hands-on experience”, which cannot be achieved through observation alone. It also mainly limits the tasks performed by interns to various types of technical activities, and is thus not congruent with the aims of their undergraduate education. We plan to review the scope of practice for interns with our local health regulator such that their role can be expanded in the future.

The program trained 53 interns from January 2017 to December 2021. Interns who graduated from the program enrolled in residency training, found employment in hospital-based practice, and/or followed advanced degrees in pharmacy. The program received very favourable feedback from interns, proved to be both feasible and sustainable, and could be replicated in other institutions.

No funding.

The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of the pharmacy preceptors and pharmacy management towards the implementation and successful outcomes of the pharmacy internship program.

No conflict of interests.