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Teaching in Pharmacy Practice and Administration

Applying Medication Management Skills to Patient Care

Faculty of the Department of Pharmacy Practice & Administration are responsible for all of the practice-based courses taught throughout the Pharm.D. curriculum including:

Required Courses

  • Top 200 Drugs
  • Pharmacy Law
  • Drug Information
  • Communication and Counseling Skills
  • Pathophysiology and Therapeutics
  • Population Based Health Care
  • Self Care and Natural Products
  • Managing Practice and Personnel
  • Health Care Delivery
  • Literature Evaluation
  • Ethics in Pharmacy Practice
  • Concepts in Pharmacy Practice
  • Introductory Practice Experience (IPPE)
  • Advanced Practice Experience (APPE)

Elective Courses

  • Topics in Pharmacy Law
  • Community Pharmacy Management
  • Perspectives on Public Health Practice
  • Conversational Spanish for Pharmacists
  • Pain and Palliative Care
  • Leadership in Pharmacy Practice
  • Geriatric Health Care
  • Application of Drug Interaction Information
  • Topics in Medication Safety
  • Complimentary and Alternative Medicine
  • Advanced Rotation Electives
  • Professional Issues in Substance Abuse

In addition to traditional didactic methods, faculty incorporate tools and technologies into their classrooms such as the Turning Point student response system, small group discussions and presentations, in-class demonstrations, Blackboard course modules, case studies, and patient counseling using standardized patients from the University of Rochester Medical School. Integration of concepts from multiple disciplines and the development of problem-solving skills are the hallmark of every course taught in the department.

For complete descriptions of these courses, see the Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) section of the Graduate Catalog.

The department is also responsible for the design, implementation, and management of the School's Experiential Education Training program (see Experiential Education for additional details), which provides live hands-on training in caring for patients and managing their medication therapy in a variety of patient care settings (hospitals, clinics, extended care facilities, community pharmacies, health care organizations, hospice care, rural health care, managed care and health insurance companies, the FDA and CDC, and other specialty practices).

Innovation in Education

Seeking to improve the educational experiences of our students and to promote student-centered learning, the following projects are examples of our faculty's commitment to educational development:

  • Student Self Assessment of a Professionalism Pledge by Richard O'Brocta, Pharm.D., Todd Schoen, Pharm.D., Kim Swigart, Pharm.D., Megan Sullivan, Pharm.D., Todd Dewey, Pharm.D. Candidate, and Randy Rahiman, Pharm.D. Candidate
  • Student Survey of the Structure and Function of Pharmacy Student Government by Richard O'Brocta, Pharm.D., Greg Jelson, Pharm.D., Bryan Baker, Pharm.D., Daniel Ricciardi, Pharm.D. Candidate

Student-Directed Research Projects

Offering both formal coursework in research methods as well as opportunities for independent study, professional projects, advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPE), and post-doctoral residency training, department faculty and their students have collaborated on a diverse range of topics:

Posters

  • An Anticoagulation Clinic Led by an Experiential Education Team by Rebecca Wedow, Pharm.D. Candidate, Asim Abu-Baker, Pharm.D., CDE and Gabriela Camacho, Pharm.D.
  • Beyond Insulin: Liraglutide in the Treatment of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus by Adrian Hui, Pharm.D. Candidate, Nicholas Schwier, Pharm.D. Candidate, Melinda Lull, Ph.D., Ritu Malik, M.D., Jane Lyons-Patterson, ANP, CDE, and Andrea Traina, Pharm.D., BCPS

Publications

  • M Kaltenbach, D Hutchinson, J Bollinger, and F Zhao. "Stability of Diluted Adenosine Solutions in Polyvinyl Chloride Infusion Bags", American Journal of Health-Systems Pharmacy 68(16):1533-1536 (2011)