Committee backs guidance encouraging interns to seek external experience and gives PICs flexibility on intern ratios

The Licensing Committee on Jan. 8 discussed whether the board should ask interns to obtain additional practice experience beyond ACPE‑required rotations and whether pharmacist‑in‑charge (PIC) discretion should determine intern supervision ratios.

Seung Oh reviewed the statutory baseline: interim pharmacists must complete 1,500 hours of pharmacy practice experience before applying for the pharmacist licensure exam; the committee noted that applicants graduating after Jan. 1, 2026, from an accredited college are deemed to have met the experience requirement. "An applicant that has graduated after 01/01/2026 from an accredited college of pharmacy is deemed to have satisfied the pharmacy practice experience requirement," the chair summarized from the meeting materials.

Members including Satinder Sandu and Renee Barker supported a non‑mandatory board policy statement that encourages, but does not require, additional experiential hours outside formal ACPE rotations. The committee discussed the administrative burden of tracking external hours and heard public commenters urge clarity and caution about enforcement language.

Kyle Souza, dean of Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy, recommended reframing the draft as guidance or a support statement rather than a formal policy so it would not be interpreted as an enforcement expectation: "I would simply recommend that perhaps it be considered that it be reframed or relabeled as guidance or as a support statement," he said.

Sean Kim of the California Pharmacists Association urged the board to clarify tracking and reporting for qualified hours and suggested incentives for preceptors, such as continuing education credits or fee discounts.

On supervision ratios, the committee expressed support for replacing the statutory cap that limits pharmacist supervision of interns with an approach that allows PICs to determine appropriate intern ratios by practice setting, noting this could expand intern placements, particularly in non‑retail settings where volume and staffing differ sharply.

Next steps: The committee asked staff to develop draft statutory language and a revised policy statement for committee and full‑board consideration; no regulatory changes were adopted at the meeting.