Ambulatory Care Pharmacy Concentration
Become an Ambulatory Care Pharmacist
The Ambulatory Care Pharmacy Concentration includes six (6) credit hours in didactic
elective coursework in ambulatory care topics designed to give PCOM School of Pharmacy
PharmD program students in-depth preparation for a career in ambulatory care pharmacy.
Graduates will be encouraged to apply for PGY 1 and 2 residencies in ambulatory care
pharmacy and related specialty training. As space is limited, students will be selected
based on availability.
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What is an ambulatory care pharmacist?
An ambulatory care pharmacist can manage patients in collaboration with physicians
and other prescribers in an outpatient care setting and often are crucial in managing
chronic disease states like diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and many others.
Collaborative practice agreements set up with physicians and other prescribers allow
pharmacists to perform patient assessments, manage diseases through monitoring and
adjusting medication use, coordinate care with other providers and provide patient
education and counseling services. Through these types of partnerships, ambulatory
care pharmacists can have a major impact on wellness, prevention and optimum outcomes
for their patient populations.
Where do ambulatory care pharmacists work?
Ambulatory care pharmacists work in community and chain pharmacies, outpatient clinics,
physician offices and hospitals.
Which courses will I take for the ambulatory care Pharmacy concentration?
The Ambulatory Care Pharmacy Concentration requires the completion of six (6) credit
hours of elective coursework. Students will complete two, one-credit ambulatory care
courses per term in the third year (six courses for a total of six credits). Current
course offerings are listed below and are subject to change. Consult the course catalog for additional information.
Chronic Disease Management
This course will identify the effectiveness and potential harms of pharmacist-led
chronic disease management and the referral of patients to other health care providers.
Special emphasis is placed on specific problem solving skills involved in initiating,
adjusting and discontinuing drug therapy in complex integrated cases seen in chronic
disease management such as COPD, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, anticoagulation, hypertension
and safe medication use in older adults.
Ambulatory Care Practice: Transitions of Care, MTM and CDTM
This course is designed to expose students to topics related to the ambulatory care
pharmacist’s’ scope of practice and to expand student knowledge base in ambulatory
care pharmacy. These include the following: transitions of care models, satisfying
Medicare Part D enhanced medication therapy management requirements in Medicare Part
D, comprehensive medication management, collaborative drug therapy management, annual
wellness visits, medication reconciliation, and polypharmacy interventions. Special
emphasis is placed on the intent of practice models in patient safety and the pharmacist's
impact on outcome quality measures using these practice models to assess outcomes.
Public Health in Ambulatory Care Practice (Immunizations and Travel Medicine)
This course will advance the student’s knowledge regarding clinical application of
public health policy from the pharmacist’s perspective. Discussions will focus on
understanding and applying principles of health and wellness when providing individual
and population-based patient care, including pharmacy-based immunization delivery
and disease prevention. Additionally, this course will also discuss the pharmacist’s
role in emergency preparedness in mass vaccination campaigns for vaccine-preventable
diseases, highlighting the pharmacist’s impact in advancing public health and wellness.
Comprehensive Diabetes Management
This course will provide students a multidisciplinary foundation in the principles
of diabetes management with additional education in the management and care of patients
with diabetes. The course’s primary objective is to expand students’ aptitude and
confidence in the provision of diabetes management while reinforcing the knowledge
of drug therapy in the core pharmacy curriculum.
Entrepreneurship: Building an Ambulatory Care Practice
This course is designed to build upon entrepreneurial skills in the core curriculum
by teaching students how to write a business plan to build an independent ambulatory
care practice. The course will cover topics involved with ambulatory pharmacist billing
and reimbursements, and the elements of developing a practice to support outpatient
and primary care physicians. Students will be prepared to lead and build an ambulatory
care pharmacy practice to ensure that pharmacy practitioners have the tools to continuously
innovate and advance pharmacy practice in today’s challenging and changing healthcare
environment.
Pharmacotherapeutic Management of Patients with Social Determinants in Primary Care
This course will develop entry-level competencies needed for community and ambulatory
care pharmacy practice dealing by advanced exploration in the psychology of behavior
change. The student will use the Pharmacist Patient Care Process to identify, understand
and resolve social and behavioral barriers to improve pharmacotherapeutic outcomes.
By resolving patient-specific barriers to medication adherence regarding chronic disease,
reduction of disease burden will occur. Knowledge, skill development along with attitude
insight will occur using virtual simulations, case vignettes and real-world scenarios
that hinder the creation of health equity.
Advanced Oncology
This elective* covers preparation of intravenous chemotherapy and oral chemotherapy
by an oncologic pharmacist. It also covers survivorship including nutrition and wellness
for the cancer patient. The student will have an opportunity to learn about various
cancers that were not previously covered along with oncology nutrition. The student
will also have an opportunity to verify chemotherapy orders and apply it to a patient
case as well as a chance to complete an oncology volunteer activity.
*May also satisfy Acute Care Concentration
Topic Discussions in Consultant Pharmacy and Geriatrics
The purpose of this course is to expose students to the key concepts in consultant
pharmacy practice pertaining to geriatric pharmacotherapy and assessment. The course
is designed to focus on important clinical topics in geriatrics. There will be an
emphasis on the physiology of aging, appropriate pharmacotherapy, complexity of regimens,
changes in cognition, and the challenges of providing safe medication management of
the elderly. The course will include, but is not limited to, Alzheimer’s disease and
other dementias, Parkinson’s disease, depression, anxiety, behavioral disorders, gastrointestinal
disorders, changes in hepatic metabolism, renal clearance and volumes of distribution
and other topics.
*May also satisfy Acute Care Concentration
Psychiatry and Mental Health
This course* will introduce new topics not covered in the core curriculum related
to psychiatric illnesses including concepts of behavioral medicine, and traumatic
disorders. Additional attention will also be given to management of affective disorders,
anxiety, schizophrenia and attention-deficit disorders. Students will apply the knowledge
learned via the lecture through group cases conducted at the end of each lecture as
well as movie/topic discussions pertaining to the lecture material.
*May also satisfy Acute Care Concentration
Entrepreneurship: Community Pharmacy Management and Performance
This course* is designed to provide the student with the necessary information to
become a community pharmacy owner either through the establishment of a new pharmacy
or the purchase of an existing pharmacy. The student will learn layout and design,
location analysis, evaluation of third-party plans, and promotional offerings, as
well as the financial aspects of the development, implementation and performance of
value-added clinical services in the community setting.
*May also satisfy Managed Care Concentration.
Advanced Health Systems Management, Outcomes and Services
This course* provides the student with knowledge and skills for managing population
health outcomes in health care systems. The focus is on understanding the role of
costs in health care delivery and the balance between optimizing health care costs
and achieving outcomes. Special emphasis will be given to the application of health
services research data to the quality of care from the perspective of a population-health
manager.
*May also satisfy Acute or Managed Care Concentration.