Megan Ehret, BCPP Director
Brenda Schimenti, CPNP Executive Director
The November issue of the Mental Health Clinician features a research article, Factors influencing performance on the Board Certified Psychiatric Pharmacist (BCPP) Examination: Passing rates and domain-level scores, reporting on a comprehensive study of candidate performance on the BCPP Examination. After seeing a consistent and progressive decrease in the pass rate since the Fall 2017 administration of the BCPP exam, CPNP requested a study to better understand possible reasons behind the decrease in pass rate. In the article, the Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS) and current BCPP leaders on the specialty council describe the findings of a retrospective, observational study presenting (a) statistical trends of examination passing rates for biannual cohorts over the past 5 years, as well as (b) score distributions on the 3 performance domains of the certification.
As a refresher, the BCPP exam eligibility pathways or ability to sit for the exam are:
- Four years of post-licensure/registration experience, including 50% or more of that time spent practicing in the domains delineated in the Psychiatric Pharmacy Content Outline.
- Completion of a PGY1 residency plus 2 additional years of post-licensure/registration experience, including 50% or more of that time spent practicing in the domains delineated in the Psychiatric Pharmacy Content Outline.
- Completion of a specialty (PGY2) residency in psychiatric pharmacy.
The authors concluded that the findings of the research mirror a previous BPS study of all specialties as follows:
- The changes in pass rate are, in part, the result of changes in the proportion of candidates qualifying to sit for the BCPP examination via the 3 available eligibility pathways.
- “Additional analysis of the domain-level scores revealed patterns of performance among eligibility groups similar to that seen on the overall examination. The PGY2 candidates outperform PGY1 candidates, who in turn outperform candidates who qualify by practice experience.”
CPNP has considered the implications of these trends in its most recent strategic plan. Specific related areas of focus for the organization include:
- Growth in PGY2 Psychiatric Pharmacy Residencies: CPNP is working to encourage growth of PGY2 residencies in psychiatric pharmacy in order to provide more opportunities for future psychiatric pharmacists to complete this advanced practice experience. Planned work includes development of a web-based employer resource center intended to provide support and justification resources for the addition of PGY2 residencies and psychiatric pharmacy positions.
- Products and Services to Support Psychiatric Pharmacists and BCPP Candidates From All Eligibility Pathways: CPNP is working to:
- Adapt BCPP preparatory and recertification products to the new Role Delineation Study results and revised BCPP Content Outline to be implemented in 2022.
- Develop and/or revamp educational products and tools to enable practical, peer-to-peer learning and mentoring.
- Develop a roadmap/toolkit to provide a recommended educational plan to support new and developing practitioners who are interested in pursuing BCPP certification.
- Transition to an enhanced learning management system to better support peer learning and the integration of interactive educational strategies that enable increasingly realistic practice-based, patient care learning and experience.
With our mission to serve as the voice of psychiatric pharmacy and our important role as the provider of preparatory and recertification products for the BCPP, CPNP is committed to advancing and growing the specialty. One of the most important ways to do this is to grow the number of BCPPs. Please outreach to Brenda Schimenti at bschimenti@cpnp.org with any questions and please join us as a volunteer on one of our many committees and editorial boards working to address these goals.
