UAMS: Next Generation Pharmacy

Next Generation Pharmacy Curriculum – the UAMS Advantage

Welcome 2020! As we begin a new year and a new decade, it is a great time to think about where we are going and where we have been including the forces that have shaped us and the new challenges that lie ahead. As an academic leader, I have found myself reflecting on the those forces that have shaped the education of pharmacists over my career. The transition from the Bachelor of Science to the Doctor of Pharmacy as the single entry level degree has been one of the most impactful. Now that we are about 30 years out from that transition at UAMS, it is worth a look at the changes that have occurred within education and practice. Cindy Stowe, Pharm.D. Dean

At UAMS the first all-PharmD graduating class was the Class of 1993. Nationally, the number of graduates with a PharmD degree exceeded the number of BS graduates for the first time in 2000. The fall semester of 2000 was also the first year that all students across the US enrolled in the PharmD pathway. It is hard to believe that’s been twenty years ago! Since 2000 the number of licensure eligible graduates has doubled (7260 graduates in 2000 to 14,905 graduates in 2018). and credentialing examinations continue to increase. The changing credentials of the practicing pharmacists in healthsystem settings after the conversion to the PharmD-only entry level degree is helping usher in the next generation curriculum transformation and focused efforts for colleges and schools of pharmacy to help advance community-based practice.

Now that most practicing pharmacists in Arkansas were formally educated within the first iterations of the professional curriculum, it is time to take the next step. The new next generation pharmacy curriculum will have similar topical content as the current curriculum but delivered in a more active delivery technique that integrates the foundational science and therapeutics and equips graduates with practice management skills to solve patient problems and optimize health and wellbeing. The composition of colleges and schools of pharmacy have changed progressively over the thirty years becoming more diverse in the disciplines and backgrounds of the faculty members while the practice environment has become more sophisticated and advanced in the healthsystem settings.

Within colleges and schools of pharmacy, the composition of the faculty has changed with the transition to the PharmD as the only entry level degree. A driver of this change was the expansion of experiential education within the PharmD curriculum as compared to the BS degree. To provide enough preceptors in a diversity of health-system settings, colleges and schools of pharmacy increased the number of pharmacy practice faculty in institutional based practice settings and helped start pharmacy residency programs. Now, the gap between health-settings and community-based practice is being narrowed with more pharmacists entering the ambulatory care settings from both the community and institutional practices.

The size of pharmacy faculty has grown to accommodate these needs. Nationally, for the first time in 2008, the number of PharmD faculty outnumbered PhD faculty members. The most recent data available (academic year 2019) shows that PharmD faculty members represent the majority of the faculty within colleges and schools of pharmacy (PharmD 52%, PhD 41%, other 7%). At UAMS (academic year 2020), the distribution is similar (PharmD 56%, PhD 42%, other 2%).

Currently, of the 3822 AR licensed pharmacists (active license residing in AR), 64% hold a PharmD with or without a BS in Pharmacy and 36% hold a BS in Pharmacy only. In addition, the number of residency program positions continue to increase; quadrupling in Arkansas over the preceding 15 years (2005 = 10 residency positions and 2020 at least 43 positions). Practice trends offer greater opportunities for specialization, At UAMS we are strategically developing and maximizing areas of research expertise in radiation health, drug discovery, pharmaceutical evaluation and policy, and implementation science. These research areas of expertise have allowed us to develop an excellent graduate program. Additionally, the Department of Pharmacy Practice along with the services units of the College are well positioned to focus on helping advance community-based pharmacy practice now more than ever. Our diversity of faculty talent will allow us to develop and implement a uniquely UAMS next generation PharmD curriculum that will produce excellent pharmacist practitioners that will fully realize the vision of the entry-level PharmD curriculum. We value your support in educating the next generation of pharmacists through your time and talent as preceptors and donors, and I wholeheartedly encourage you to challenge us to make this next generation PharmD degree to be the envy of the nation! §

Footnotes

• University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Pharmacy internal data. • American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Institutional Research. 2019-2020 Tuition & Fees at U.S. Colleges and Schools of Pharmacy. https://www.aacp.org/research/institutional-research Last accessed 2020January09. • Arkansas Board of Pharmacy internal data.

Editorial Note: This article was written before the coronavirus pandemic and some information may have changed.