# How Have Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) Been Implemented in Pharmacy Education? A Scoping Review

## TL;DR

This review explores how Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) have been used in pharmacy education, finding they are mostly used in practice settings and help assess student competencies.

## Contribution

The study provides a comprehensive overview of EPA implementation in pharmacy education, highlighting their use and challenges.

## Key findings

- EPAs are primarily implemented in practice experiences rather than course activities.
- Direct practice observation is the most common method to assess student performance on EPAs.
- Student performance on EPAs improves after educational activities, but implementation challenges include heavy workload.

## Abstract

Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) are units of professional practice entrusted to learners once they have attained the required competencies to perform them. This scoping review described how Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) have been implemented in pharmacy education. MEDLINE (PubMed), Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched (on 8 July 2025) to identify relevant literature from 2016 to 2025. Studies that describe EPAs implemented in pharmacy programs, assess the perspectives on EPAs implemented, or evaluate student performance on EPAs were included. Studies that did not assess actual experience of EPAs’ implementation were excluded. The data were described narratively and through frequencies and tables. Twenty-four studies were included in the review. Most studies pointed out that the EPAs’ framework has been adopted mostly in practice experiences, but with a few experiences in course activities. The most frequent approach to assess student performance on EPAs was direct practice observation. Student performance on EPAs improved after participating in educational activities. From the perspectives of students, preceptors, and faculty members, EPAs facilitated student assessment of competencies; however, there are challenges in their implementation, such as heavy workload. The findings of this review can inform faculty members and health professionals who intend to implement EPAs’ framework.