Mission and Goals 
PCOM School of Pharmacy

To attract qualified applicants and provide a holistically supportive learning environment promoting academic and professional success, and overall wellness achieving on-time graduation, first-time passing of the NAPLEX and MPJE, and post-graduate success in the pharmacy profession.

Strategies and Tactics:

1. Expand and strengthen the pool of qualified candidates.
   1. Expand number of candidates from Puerto Rico through engagement with Future Pharmacists organization and annual recruitment visit.
   2. Expand recruiting at undergraduate institutions at their health professions career fairs.
   3. Host monthly Career PharmD (alumni) and Inspiring Journey (faculty) series.
2. Cultivate a holistically supportive learning environment.
   1. Utilize early interventions strategies including academic alerts and study hall.
   2. Provide peer tutoring for all students.
   3. Integrate academic care support specialists into the learning experience.
   4. Provide academic advising throughout the program.
3. Foster graduate readiness for career and academic success.
   1. Maintain curricular rigor with focus on pharmacotherapy and calculations, including implementing a progressive passing bar for calculations.
   2. Implement the comprehensive remediation plan.
   3. Organize annual Career and Fellowship Fair.

To attract, develop, and retain qualified staff, faculty and preceptors by enhancing institutional and programmatic visibility and reputation.

Strategies and Tactics:

1. To enhance the visibility and reputation of PCOM School of Pharmacy:
   1. Promote achievements through highlighting accomplishments on social media platforms.
   2. Strengthen community engagement through outreach programs and meetings.
   3. Enhance overall programmatic visibility at conferences.
   4. Develop strategic marketing by highlighting alumni achievements.
   5. Expand collaborations with partner experiential sites and PCOM academic programs.
2. To recognize and honor achievements of staff, faculty and preceptors:
   1. Highlight achievements via newsletters or bulletin boards.
   2. Annual staff, faculty and preceptor awards event.
3. To implement effective onboarding, mentoring and continuous professional development:
   1. Build incentive program for participation in professional development activities (i.e.events, conferences and networking seminar/books/podcasts).
   2. Develop a book club to foster personal and professional growth.
   3. Build a culture for coaching and mentoring for staff and faculty.

To promote collaborative and innovative scholarship that generates long-term revenue initiatives, ensuring continued growth and impact.

Strategies and Tactics:

1. Develop a workforce to increase visibility of the institution through publications and participation.
   1. Support faculty to generate revenue through consultancy, continuing education, and contract research.
   2. Increase the number of peer-reviewed publications, abstract submissions, and presentations at meetings and conferences.
   3. Celebrate innovative, collaborative research by faculty and students that attracts external funding through endowments, foundations, and corporate partnerships.
2. Support faculty to establish and maintain cutting-edge research.
   1. Collaborate with the PCOM Division of Research to provide small grants to fund high-risk, high-reward projects.
   2. Offer workshops on entrepreneurship, patenting, and launching of startup based on faculty research findings.
3. Develop and participate in research-intensive groups.
   1. Develop preclinical and clinical research faculty groups through collaboration to establish pharmaceutical industry-sponsored projects.

The PCOM School of Pharmacy curriculum has been designed to prepare students with the knowledge, skills and values for successful careers in an expanding healthcare environment. Specific outcomes of the curriculum are:

Foundations for Practice

• Foundational Knowledge – Integrate, and apply knowledge from biomedical, pharmaceutical, social/behavioral/administrative, and clinical sciences to evaluate scientific literature, explain drug action, solve therapeutic problems, and advance population health and patient-centered care.
• Self-Directed Learner – Take initiative in diagnosing learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying resources for learning, choosing appropriate learning approaches, and evaluating learning outcomes as part of a personal program of continuous professional development.

Practice Essentials

• Patient-Centered Care – Provide patient-centered care as the medication expert.
• Medication-Use Systems Management – Manage patient healthcare needs to optimize the safety and efficacy of medication use systems.
• Health and Wellness – Design prevention, intervention, and educational strategies for individuals and communities to manage chronic disease and improve health and wellness.
• Population-Based Care – Describe how population-based care influences patient-centered care and influences the development of practice guidelines and evidence-based best practices.
• Evidence-Based Pharmacy Practice – Integrate evidence-based medicine principles by valuing input from patients, families and communities.

Practice Approach

• Problem Solving – Identify problems; explore and prioritize potential strategies; and design, implement, and evaluate a viable solution.
• Educator – Educate all audiences by determining the most effective and enduring ways to impart information and assess understanding.
• Patient Advocacy – Assure that patients’ best interests are represented.
• Interprofessional Collaboration – Actively participate and engage as a healthcare team member by demonstrating mutual respect, understanding, and values to meet patient care needs.
• Cultural Sensitivity – Recognize social determinants of health to diminish disparities and inequities in access to quality care.
• Communication – Effectively communicate verbally, nonverbally and paraverbally when interacting with an individual, group, or organization.

Self Development

• Self-Awareness – Examine and reflect on personal knowledge, skills, abilities, beliefs, motivation, biases, and emotions that could enhance or limit personal and professional growth.
• Leadership – Demonstrate responsibility for creating and achieving shared goals, regardless of position.
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Engage in innovative activities by using creative thinking to envision better ways of accomplishing professional goals.
• Professionalism – Exhibit behaviors and values consistent with the trust given to the profession by patients, healthcare providers, and society.

Our program incorporates active learning, interdisciplinary education and problem solving skills, affording our students the ability to practice in an ever-changing and lifelong learning profession. Students will also be exposed to and encouraged to gain specialized training in residency or fellowship programs to prepare them for careers in other areas such as specialized clinical practice, research, pharmaceutical industry or academia.

School of Pharmacy faculty members engage in scholarship consistent with the School’s mission and contribute to scientific knowledge associated with the practice of pharmacy and medicine. In its didactic and experiential curriculum, the School of Pharmacy provides exposure to students in many different aspects of pharmacy including clinical and basic pharmaceutical science research. Students receive instruction in research methods, establishing evidence-based medicine practice principles, and critical evaluation of research literature.

The School of Pharmacy serves the State of Georgia, the surrounding region and the nation by attracting from all areas to help reduce the shortage of readily accessible healthcare providers in underserved areas. Our faculty and students contribute to state and national professional organizations, and help advance cost-effective healthcare outcomes in pharmacy practice and the profession, and improve patients’ quality of life as key members of the interprofessional healthcare team.