Programs
Diabetes Concentration
This unique program provides students the opportunity to fulfill their general and professional electives with courses that will assist them in developing expertise in diabetes. The general goal of this concentration is to prepare pharmacy students to be competent providers of diabetes patient care. Fundamental concepts include:
- An enhanced understanding of the pathophysiology of and endocrinologic basis for diabetes.
- An understanding of the social milieu for diabetes.
- An appreciation for the impact of diabetes on minority populations.
- Psychosocial issues and the impact on diabetes management.
- An enhanced understanding of the therapeutics of managing diabetes.
Occupations - The concentration enables pharmacy students to:
- Effectively coordinate the care of diabetes patients.
- Become leaders in diabetes management by establishing practices which provide high quality diabetes care.
- Effectively negotiate with patients and other providers to improve the quality of diabetes care.
- Monitor subjective and objective markers of safety and effectiveness and intervene as required to ensure safe and effective therapy.
- Select appropriate prescription and non-prescription therapies.
- Monitor patients for adverse drug-drug and drug-disease interactions and intervene as appropriate with patients and health care providers.
- Educate patients on techniques such as insulin injection and self-monitoring of blood glucose.
Enrollment Capacity
Enrollment will be limited initially due to availability of experiential sites.
Students planning to pursue this concentration should complete the Declaration of Concentration Form.
The concentration consists of both a didactic and experiential component. A total of 20 credit hours is required for the concentration. The didactic component constitutes a total of 10 credit hours of which 7 credit hours are required and 3 credit hours are elective. The remaining 10 credit hours are completed through experiential rotations.
Elective Courses (3 credits)
Elective courses previously determined to provide an appropriate background:
EDUC 164 - Perspectives in Race, Ethnicity, and Gender (MyDUSIS Subject: Teaching and Learning)
SOC 150- Special Topics courses: Race, Gender, Poverty; Race, Family & Identity; Representing Race
SOC 161 - Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
PSY 023 - Biopsychology (requires Psy 1 prerequisite)
PSY 124 - Health Psychology (requires Psy 1 prereq; Phar 172 fulfills Psy 007 requirement)
Other courses as approved by course coordinator
These electives need to be completed by end of the P2 year when the professional pharmacy course work begins.
Required Courses (7 credits)
The professional coursework that will need to be taken includes the following courses:
PHAR 126 - Principles of Nutrition (Summer following P2 year) 2 credits - WWW
PHAR 128 - Advanced Diabetes Care (P3 Fall) 3 credits - WWW
PHAR 129 - Integrated Diabetes Cases (P3 Spring) 2 credits
Experiential Components (10 credits)
One 5 credit hour rotation is required in an area which provides greater than a 50% concentration in diabetes care, or care for a minimum number of patients with diabetes. This includes, but is not limited to any of the following: Camp Hertko Hollow Volunteer, endocrinologist at Mercy West; the Integra Health System’s International Diabetes Centers; diabetes care pharmacies. One 5 credit hour rotation is required in practices which may provide less than a 50% concentration in diabetes, but still enable the student to participate in diabetes management (e.g. family practice, pediatrics, or geriatrics). It is preferable that this rotation is completed prior to one where the majority of experience would be in diabetes care.
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