PHARMACY | NEW FRONTIERS
New Frontiers in Pharmacy Education Preparing students for their role in an evolving pharmacy practice By Sandra Levy
W
hen Todd Sorensen attended pharmacy school there wasn’t a formal course in the curriculum on leadership development, or how to produce quality improvements in medication use. Fast forward to 2021, and Sorensen, a professor and senior executive associate dean at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy in Minneapolis, is part of efforts to create curricular strategies that focus on emerging trends in pharmacy and health care. Make no mistake, this is not your grandmother’s pharmacy school’s curriculum. To be sure, the new crop of pharmacy students nationwide will need much more than an introduction to rudimentary science courses, thanks to the notable progress that the pharmacy industry has made in advancing the clinical role of pharmacists. The pandemic also has elevated pharmacists’ roles and allowed them to assume expanded responsibilities. Many pharmacy schools are stepping up to the plate with new courses and electives, as well as honing some of their existing courses, to ensure that their students are well prepared to meet the myriad challenges that they will face as newly minted pharmacists. Leadership development is one area that is a huge component of the new frontier in pharmacy school education. In the late 2010s, the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy began to address leadership, but Sorensen said that the emphasis on leadership development has evolved. His view is that new graduates are going to need to assume responsibility for creating the change that follows trends in health care. “How can we empower students to envision change and realize they can develop the skills necessary to create that change as new practitioners is a question that is guiding the school’s leadership development
50
Students at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy have a new elective called Pandemic and Society, which covers COVID-19 and previous pandemics. experience,” he said. To that end, the school created an extensive 16-credit leadership “emphasis area,” a program that results in a transcript subplan designation in leadership development with the student’s Pharm.D. degree. The University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy also is focusing on developing students’ leadership skills, with an elective on leadership and advocacy. “One of the outcomes in all of the curriculum is for each student to adopt the lifestyle of professionalism and commitment to the improvement of the profession of pharmacy, which entails leadership and advocacy,” said University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy interim dean Donna Strum. She noted that the state of Mississippi is advocating for pharmacists to provide precision patient care, such as strep tests, and
then treating the patient in consultation or collaboration with a patient’s provider. “If our pharmacy students can adapt to contemporary practice models, and they are committed to professionalism, to learn and improve, that would be an improvement for the profession and for patient care,” Strum said. The Notre Dame of Maryland University School of Pharmacy in Baltimore is yet another pharmacy school that is not standing on the sidelines when it comes to advancing students’ leadership skills and development. “We recognize that in order for the profession of pharmacy to advance, we need all pharmacists to be leaders,” said Anne Lin, dean of the Notre Dame of Maryland University School of Pharmacy. One of the pharmacy school’s courses includes content related to leadership development. “There are a lot of things that go
November 2021 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM
050-056_DSN_Phar_1121_v1_NM_MM.indd 50
11/3/21 11:50 AM
