Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm. D.)

Pharmacy

The practice of pharmacy is an integral part of total health care. The pharmacist serves as a vital source of drug use information for other health care professionals and members of the community. The special knowledge of the pharmacist can maximize the effectiveness of disease treatment and minimize the possibility of adverse effects that could develop during drug therapy of diseases.

Pharmacy practice environments are diverse and challenging. While many graduates pursue careers in community and hospital pharmacy, others choose careers in the pharmaceutical industry, research, government service, consultant pharmacy or diverse professional specialties.

History

The first college of pharmacy in Des Moines was the Iowa College of Pharmacy. It was organized in 1882. This college affiliated with Drake University in 1887 and operated as one of the colleges of the University until 1906 when it was discontinued.

The Highland Park College of Pharmacy was organized in Des Moines in 1889. Highland Park College, in 1918, changed its name to Des Moines University, with the college of pharmacy continuing as an integral part of the university.

In 1927, the faculty of the College of Pharmacy of Des Moines University organized an independent college of pharmacy, the Des Moines College of Pharmacy. This college operated as an independent institution from 1927 until 1939, when the Des Moines College of Pharmacy Corporation was dissolved and the college’s staff and facilities became part of Drake University.

Educational Goals and Objectives of the Professional Program in Pharmacy

The purpose of the Pharmacy Professional Program is to provide the graduate with the relevant knowledge base, skills, attitudes, ethics and values to engage in the entry-level practice of pharmacy. The curriculum is designed to provide the graduate with competence in these areas:

  1. Problem-solving and decision-making.
    In order to provide pharmaceutical care, the pharmacist must have the skills of inquiry, abstract logical thinking and critical analysis to identify problems, make judgments and decisions based on available data or identify additional needed data.
  2. Management.
    Pharmaceutical care entails managing drug therapy, including developing and implementing care plans and measuring therapeutic outcomes. In addition, pharmacists manage personnel, supplies, practices and departments. The effective and efficient delivery of pharmaceutical care requires the effective and efficient management of a pharmacy practice.
  3. Lifelong learning.
    Practice is a learning experience. The pharmacist must be able to learn from problem-solving experiences. Pharmacists must acquire a continuing flow of new knowledge. Lifelong learning is dependent on the development of self-learning abilities and habits.
  4. Communicating and educating.
    The pharmacist must communicate with colleagues, other professionals and patients. Pharmacists, as members of society, communicate with other citizens about health. Pharmacists must have the basic knowledge, confidence, attitudes and skills to read, write, listen and speak effectively. Pharmacists must be able to deal effectively with dissent, being able to disagree articulately and persuasively about patients’ therapies.
  5. Policy formulation and professional governance.
    Pharmacists must be able to take active roles in shaping policies, practices and future directions for the profession. Pharmacists must look beyond their immediate practice settings to the environment of pharmacy and the health care system. Pharmacists must be prepared to deal with issues of organization, financing, delivery, payment, access, quality and regulation of drugs and pharmacy services. Pharmacists must be aware of methods of shaping change in the profession through policy formation in the public and private sectors.
  6. Professionalism.
    Pharmacists must understand and accept their duties and responsibilities to patients, health care professionals and their profession. Pharmacists are expected to have developed value systems and ethical standards that guide their behavior. Pharmacists must have a sense of the obligation they owe their patients and their duty to ensure that obligation is fulfilled.

Upon graduation from the Drake University pharmacy program, the graduate also shall fulfill the outcomes of the Drake Curriculum, described in the front section of this catalog.

Admission Requirements

Students may apply to the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and enter the pre-pharmacy direct from high school and, upon completion of established criteria, may enter into the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) professional program. Students entering as first year pre-pharmacy students in Fall 2008 will be required to undergo an interview requirement in addition to a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0 and a 3.0 grade point average in the required math and science course work. Students may apply for progression into the PharmD professional program if the established criteria are not met.

Students who have successfully completed a minimum of 60 credit hours — including the required math and science courses and electives applicable to the pharmacy curriculum — may be considered for placement in the first year of the professional program. Students who have completed coursework at other institutions must apply for admission into the PharmD program through the Pharmacy Centralized

Application Service (PharmCAS) at http://www.pharmcas.org. Admission of transfer students is highly competitive and the number of students admitted for any year depends on the space available.

Specific Regulations/Academic Requirements

Pharmacy students should familiarize themselves with the General Information section of this catalog, which covers many regulations that affect all Drake University students. The College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences also has a number of specific regulations and requirements that must be met to progress through the pharmacy curriculum. Some of these are listed below; others are available in the Pharmacy Student Handbook at http://pharmacy.drake.edu.

Many pharmacy courses have prerequisite requirements. Admission to a course is denied if prerequisite courses have not been successfully completed. Therefore, deviations from the curriculum as it is structured require careful consideration. Course prerequisites may be found in the course descriptions, as well as the Pharmacy Student Handbook, both of which are available at http://pharmacy.drake.edu.

Pharmacy students may apply a maximum of nine hours of elective coursework on a credit/no credit basis toward graduation. Courses regularly graded on a credit/no credit basis are not included within the nine hours maximum. The student must have a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 2.75 before registering in a course on a credit/no credit basis.

Candidates qualifying for the degree must complete 208 credit hours and have at least a 2.00 cumulative grade-point average. The standard grading scale for pharmacy students enrolled in pharmacy-labeled courses is "A", "B", "C", "D" or "F". All courses in the pre-pharmacy curriculum and the first three years of the professional curriculum must be successfully completed before a student enrolls in fourth-year (final year) coursework.

Students entering the professional program in Fall 2004 and after may not progress onto rotations unless a "C" or better is earned in each required course. Students are permitted to retake a pharmacy required course for a passing grade (2.0 grade-point or "C") one time only. Students who do not obtain a 2.0 (or "C") in a pharmacy required course after two attempts will be dropped from the Pharm.D. program.

All fourth-year pharmacy students are required to complete 40 weeks of experiential rotations (Pharmacy 285) prior to graduation. During these experiential rotations, students apply pharmaceutical principles related to diagnosis, treatment and patient care; monitor drug utilization and drug therapy and interact with patients, physicians, nurses and other health care providers. Due to regulations at many of the experiential sites, the college will complete a criminal background check and drug screen prior to admission into the professional program and again prior to entering the experiential year. Students who have a history of a felony are referred to the State Board of Pharmacy where they plan to practice pharmacy to determine if their record would prohibit licensure. Experiential sites have the right to refuse to accept a student for rotations based on the results of the criminal background check even if the history would not prohibit licensure as a pharmacist. Students who have positive drug screens and will be entering rotations will be referred to the Chemical Dependency Policy.

Candidates for the Doctor of Pharmacy degree are required to be in residence in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences for at least the last 30 credit hours before becoming eligible for graduation. Credit earned by examination may not be counted toward fulfillment of the last 30 credit hours.

Pre-pharmacy and pharmacy students are assigned a pharmacy faculty member as their academic adviser. Faculty advisers help students

  • Adapt to the college environment
  • Assist in the development of the student's education plan by providing input and feedback
  • Encourage discussions about the appropriateness of their chosen career track and the career options within the profession
  • Assist in identification of opportunities for professional skill development and
  • Make appropriate referrals to university student service offices when academic or personal difficulties arise.

The Academic and Student Affairs Office is responsible for coordinating the registration process, verifying appropriate registration of courses, approve educational plan waivers and transfer credit requests, update degree audits with regard to substitutions, waivers and transfer courses, answer student questions regarding registration, credit completion, course transfer process and study-abroad opportunities, serve as a resource for students in combined degree programs (M.B.A., M.P.A., Law) and coordinate and communicate opportunities for internship, study abroad, research and postgraduate study. The final responsibility for completion of graduation requirements, however, belongs to the student and, accordingly, each student should become familiar not only with the curriculum but also with the academic regulations of the college.

The Pharm.D. Curriculum

The following is the curriculum for the pre-pharmacy and professional programs. Please note that courses in the professional program may change. Please view updates at http://www.pharmacy.drake.edu.

Pre-pharmacy Program

First Year

Fall

Credit hour
BIO 012 Biology

4
CHEM 001/3 Chemistry I/Lab

4
FYS First Year Seminar

3
ELEC Drake Curriculum/General Elective

3
PHAR 011 CAPS I (Career, Academic Professional Success)

0.5

Total

14.5
Spring

Credit hour
BIO 013 Biology

4
CHEM 002/4 Chemistry II and Lab

4
ELEC Drake Curriculum/General Elective

3
MATH 050 Calculus I

4
PHAR 031 CAPS II

0.5

Total

15.5

Second Pre-professional Year
Fall

Credit hour
CHEM 107/9 Organic Chemistry and Lab

4
ELEC Drake Curriculum/General Elective

9
ELEC Drake Curriculum Written Communication AOI

3
PHAR 051 CAPS III

0.5

Total

16.5
Spring Credit hour
BIO 095 Microbiology

3
CHEM 108/10 Organic Chemistry II and Lab

4
ELEC Drake Curriculum/General Elective

3
PHAR 071 CAPS IV

0.5
RHET 073 Public Speaking

3
STAT 060 Statistics

3

Total

16.5

Professional Program

First Professional Year
Fall

Credit hour
BIO 128 Physiology

4
ELEC Electives

3
PHAR 144 Basic Pharmacy Skills & Applications 1

2
PHAR 130 Biochemistry

4
PHAR 131 Intro to Pharm Science

3
PHAR 137 Integrated Pharmacy Practice Experience 1

0.5
PHAR 161 Intro to Pharmaceutical Care

2

Total

18
Spring

Credit hour
PHAR 132 Pathophysiology

4
PHAR 133 Principles of Drug Action I

5
PHAR 140 Pharmaceutics 1

0.5
PHAR 145 Basic Pharmacy Skills & Applications 2

2
PHAR 171 Social Behavioral Aspects of Pharm Care

3

Total

18

Second Professional Year
Fall

Credit hour
PHAR 134 Principles of Drug Action II

5
PHAR 141 Pharmaceutics II

3
PHAR 142 Kinetics I

3
PHAR 154 Intermediate Pharmacy Skills & Application 1

3
PHAR 172 Literature Evaluation Methods

3

Total

18
Spring

Credit hour
ELEC Electives

3
PHAR 135 Principles of Drug Action III

4
PHAR 143 Kinetics II

2
PHAR 155 Intermediate Pharmacy Skills & Applications 2

3
PHAR 169 Nonprescription Therapies

3
PHAR 190 Therapeutics I

3

Total

18

Third Professional Year
Fall

Credit hour
ELEC Electives

3
PHAR 162 Pharmacy Law & Ethics

3
PHAR 174 Management in Pharmacy

3
PHAR 184 Advanced Pharmacy Skills & Applications

4
PHAR 191 Therapeutics II

4

Total

18
Spring

Credit hour
ELEC Electives

6
PHAR 173 Applied Social & Administrative Pharmacy

3
PHAR 185 Advanced Pharmacy Skills & Applications 2

4
PHAR 192 Therapeutics III

5

Total

18

Fourth Professional Year
Fall

Credit hour
PHAR 285 Rotations

22

Total

22

Spring

Credir hour
PHAR 285 Rotations

18

Total

18

Electives

Pharmacy majors must complete electives that enable them to fulfill the outcomes of the Drake Curriculum, described in the front section of this catalog along with enough electives to complete the required number of credits for graduation. Students may also use electives to pursue a second major, a minor or a concentration.

Electives also must include six credit hours of professional courses completed during the Professional Program.

The college currently offers a number of combined programs as described below and a Diabetes Concentration. For additional information, please see the Programs Of Study area at http://www.pharmacy.drake.edu.

Pharmacy/M.B.A. Joint Degree Program

Students may earn a Master’s in Business Administration in conjunction with the Pharm.D. Students who pursue this combination have opportunities in management and administrative positions. Students begin at Drake in pharmacy and apply to the College of Business and Public Administration after completing 90 credit hours. The combined degree program typically takes an extra semester to complete beyond the pharmacy degree, rather than an extra two years if the M.B.A. is completed after the Pharm.D.

Pharmacy/M.P.A. Joint Degree Program

Students may earn a Master’s in Public Administration along with the Pharm.D. through a joint program established in cooperation with the College of Business and Public Administration. Students are admitted to the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and during their first professional year may seek admission to the M.P.A. program. Students who pursue this option have management and administrative opportunities in the public sector. As with the Pharm.D./M.B.A. option, students are typically able to complete the two degrees in one additional semester rather than an additional two years after graduation with the Pharm.D.

Pharmacy/Law Joint Degree Program

Students may elect to earn both a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy and a Doctor of Jurisprudence (law) degree in a joint degree program offered in cooperation with the Drake Law School. The program allows students to focus their education on legal and health care issues. Participating students are admitted first to the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. A student pursuing this program should plan to take the LSAT and formally apply to the Law School during the spring semester of the first professional year. Each student’s schedule is tailored individually in consultation with the joint degree adviser with the goal of the student completing the equivalent of the first year of law school by the Pharm.D. graduation.