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.
REQUEST PROGRAM INFORMATIONAn 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.
Ambulatory care pharmacists work in community and chain pharmacies, outpatient clinics, physician offices and hospitals.
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.
These courses will identify the effectiveness and potential harms of pharmacist-led chronic disease management and the referral of patients to other healthcare 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.
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
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
In this elective course, students will examine the use and abuse of cannabis in our society from historical, biological, clinical, legal and regulatory issues perspectives. This course will cover all aspects related to the medicinal use of cannabis. Students will become familiar with the topic of drug use and abuse through on line elective lectures and participating in on-line group discussions. This course will help prepare students to practice in this changing setting.
This course* is designed to focus on important knowledge involving cardiovascular pharmacotherapy. The overall objective of the course is to emphasize the need for the student to provide clinical evidence to support drug therapy recommendations in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases during their clinical clerkships and future practice. By the conclusion of this course, the student will be able to cite data from clinical trials to justify their specific drug therapy recommendations for a variety of cardiovascular diseases such as ischemic heart disease (including unstable angina, chronic stable angina, acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, hypertension, dyslipidemia and etc.).
* May also satisfy Ambulatory Care Concentration
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