Soric MM. Maximize Your Rotations: ASHP's Guide to IPPEs, APPEs, and Beyond. Bethesda, MD: American Society of Health-System Pharmacists; 2013, 286pp, $35 (softcover), ISBN 9781585283545.

It can be a real challenge to maintain any type of consistency when dealing with multiple contributors to a text. Nevertheless, in Maximize Your Rotations: ASHP's Guide to IPPEs, APPEs, and Beyond, Soric manages to create a coherent work Written for students preparing for introductory and advanced pharmacy practice experiences (IPPEs and APPEs), the text goes into much greater depth than publications of a similar nature. Its voice, format, and structure make for an easy read that is both engaging and informative. The book is divided into 3 main sections. Part I: The Essentials, consisting of chapters 1 through 6, deals with overarching concepts that cut across multiple practice experience types. Topics include a review of medical terminology and biostatistics, a systematic method for conducting a balanced and objective evaluation of the literature, an approach to handling drug information questions and case presentations, and an overview of professionalism. Part II: The Particulars discusses student preparation for and engagement in individual practice experience types. Chapters 7 through 14 in this section address IPPEs as well as APPEs in internal medicine and other clinical settings, hospital or health-system pharmacy, community pharmacy, ambulatory care, management and leadership, geriatrics, and academia. The book concludes with Part III: Life After Rotations. The final 3 chapters address postgraduate opportunities, lifelong learning, and the importance of serving as a preceptor in the future. Each chapter begins with a short case to set the stage for the primary topic. Quick Tips and Case Questions interspersed throughout the narrative keep the reader focused and provide an opportunity for reflection. Also embedded in each chapter are helpful tables, definitions, common laboratory values, equations, sample forms and formats, and other valuable references. A list of suggested readings and citations is provided at the end of each chapter, although there is inconsistency in the extent of such references from chapter to chapter. Maximize Your Rotations does an outstanding job of providing students with a review of the tools needed for practice experiences. Moreover, it offers students an overview of what to expect during any given practice experience type, the kinds of activities in which the student will be engaged, how to best prepare for the experience, and the types of resources needed. It also describes what is expected from students in terms of appropriate behaviors, types of project and assignments, and typical work products. Although the book is nicely aligned with contemporary practice, it will be important for the author to periodically review and update this text to maintain its relevancy and currency. In future revisions, the author might also consider incorporation of strategies for preparing for the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination and Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination, a more robust discussion and inclusion of the ACPE Standards and Guidelines that drive experiential education, and a more expansive conversation regarding the consideration of and preparation for career opportunities other than residencies and fellowships. Maximize Your Rotations makes for an excellent addition to any experiential student's library. The case questions embedded in the text could further serve to stimulate robust discussion as part of orientation programs and courses dedicated to experiential education. Experiential directors may wish to consider this text as a requirement for students embarking upon their practice experiences.