Samford University

Samford University’s McWhorter School of Pharmacy Masters Scheduling Experiential Pharmacy Education with eValue

eValue expertise

McCullough is known as McWhorter’s “go to” eValue expert for questions or issues. As system trainer for students and faculty, she notes, “eValue is easy to learn, and the students seem happy with it.”

She’s also an eValue power user, having created a “low score documentation” program that uses the system’s customizable evaluations feature to track low scores and corresponding actions taken. The program generates a notice when a student ranks a preceptor or a practice site “2” or below and when a preceptor rates a student “2” or below.

“Director Patricia Naro, Pharm.D., FASCP and Assistant Director Dee Thomason, Pharm.D., BCPS document the action taken—specific preceptor development or student remediation,” McCullough says, “and the system is either our insurance that the action delivers a satisfactory result or lets us know that the situation requires further action.” She also created in eValue the tracking of site visits, student Interprofessional Encounters (IPEs) while on experientials, student information collection, collection of preceptor availability, and a schedule acceptance feature for both preceptors and students.

On-time grades and evaluations submissions

In addition to automating scheduling, eValue has taken grading and evaluation from manual to digital. Instead of faxing grades and evaluations, outside preceptors enter everything into the system. “If grades or evaluations aren’t entered by certain dates,” McCullough explains, “we can rely on eValue to send reminder emails at various increments of time until the requirement is completed. By taking a layer of manual entry out of our processes, eValue has also improved our accuracy.”

Keeps on giving

“We knew from the demo that eValue was a powerful system that could keep up with our growth,” says McCullough. “And we continue to be impressed with the system as well as the support team. We actually feel like they’ve become friends.“

McWhorter intends to leverage eValue as a quality control tool by creating an Educator Scorecard. “The Office of Experiential Education will have the ability to measure the performance level of each educator and provide feedback”, explains McCullough. “This will give us insight as to how well preceptors are meeting their commitments. This feedback is yet another way we can continue to offer a top-notch experiential education program. eValue just keeps on giving.”