April 11, 2016

The time is now for the future of pharmacy education

What makes a pharmacist a pharmacist? What do pharmacists need to know, and perhaps more importantly, who do they need to be, to provide 21st century health care? How will we prepare the next generation of pharmacists to be the collaborative leaders, decision makers, and primary care providers in our region and beyond?

Our Curricular Innovation work has started with attention to how and how well we meet the new 2016 ACPE Accreditation Standards for Pharmacy Education.

While our Assessment Committee is proud to report that our current curriculum meets these new accreditation educational standards, we are committed to providing unparalleled education with a PharmD program that exceeds expectations and is one of the best in the world.

Today, our guidance team tasked the UWSOP Assessment Committee to conduct a gap analysis to look at how exactly our curriculum meets or exceeds the new standards and to highlight any “soft spots” for strengthening. We continued the discussion during this meeting by exploring the attributes a future pharmacist would need. Rapid changes in health care, technology, and society, along with our state’s progressive health care laws, mean that UWSOP is uniquely positioned to address these questions, and that now is the time for a new curriculum designed for the modern pharmacist. We also began discussing the outcomes, measures, and metrics that could inform the curricular innovation process and provide success indicators for a new program, including approaches for ongoing assessment and future adaptation.

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