Pharmacy Practice

Programs

Courses

PPRAG 1301: Special Project/Research

Credits 1.5

These courses provide an opportunity for students to work with individual faculty mentors on research projects of variable scope that are intended to lead to publication, an abstract or a poster. All special projects/research require the approval of the appropriate department chair and Dean.

PPRAG 1302: Special Project/Research

Credits 3.0

These courses provide an opportunity for students to work with individual faculty mentors on research projects of variable scope that are intended to lead to publication, an abstract or a poster. All special projects/research require the approval of the appropriate department chair and Dean.

PPRAG 1338: Pharmacy-Based Health Screenings

Credits 1.5

Through active participation in lecture discussions and workshops, the student will be prepared to implement health screening programs in pharmacy practice settings. The course focuses on risk factor assessment and hands-on experience with screening devices for cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis. The course also addresses regulatory requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) and development of policies and procedures for screening programs.

PPRAG 1339: History of Pharmacy in the United States

Credits 1.5

This course is designed to introduce the pharmacy student to the history of pharmacy. This will be accomplished by focusing upon the historical development of pharmacy in the United States by examining the growth and professionalization of the field, its statutory regulation and its product development. Students will be able to apply the lessons of history to current and future practice philosophies.

PPRAG 1340: A Foundation for Leadership

Credits 2.0

This course is filled with opportunities for you to discover for yourself a new context for leadership in your life. The course is designed to increase workability in your relationships with others as well as increase performance in your work. The focus of this course is discovery through inquiry. Rather than engaging in typical case studies or using a model of learning that focuses on you “knowing the right answers to questions”, we will engage in an Inquiry model. This inquiry will focus on you “discovering for yourself what leadership in your life actually looks like”. This new model requires your participation in class discussions and completing the class assignments. If you have not participated in this type of course before, it may be unfamiliar at first, yet easy to adapt to as the course unfolds. By the end of this course, you will be standing on a powerful foundation for exercising leadership in your life.

PPRAG 1348: Personal Finance for the Healthcare Professional

Credits 1.5
The objective of this course is to introduce the tools needed to financially succeed after graduation. The class will focus on introduction to the areas of taxes, planning for retirement, investing, debt consolidation, home ownership, money management, and insurance.

PPRAG 1349: Medication Management in Hospice Patients

Credits 1.5

This course is designed to provide an overview of common diseases and symptoms encountered in terminal patients. Emphasis will be placed on the appropriate selection of medications to palliate symptoms such as pain, dyspnea, excess secretions, constipation, diarrhea, hiccups, pruritus, etc. Common diseases include but are not limited to: breast, brain, lung, colon and renal cancers; COPD; dementia; and CHF. Patient cases will be used during each session to illustrate symptom management issues.

PPRAG 1411: Pharmacological Management of Chronic Pain

Credits 1.5

Upon completion of this course students will understand how to assess pain; understand the differences between addiction, dependence and tolerance; be able to recommend appropriate medication therapies for nociceptive and neuropathic pain; understand the reasons for the multitude of available analgesic choices; understand the role of complementary and alternative medicine; and be conversant with the legal and ethical issues of pain management.

PPRAG 1415: Rare and Interesting Diseases

Credits 1.5

This course provides a forum for students to learn how to manage patients with rare and interesting disease states. The pathophysiology, epidemiology, clinical manifestations, diagnostic tests or procedures, treatment and the pharmacist’s role in the management for each disease state/genetic abnormality/adverse drug event will be reviewed. Activities will simulate patient work up and written/oral presentations in clinical practice.

PPRAG 1418: Nuclear Pharmacy

Credits 1.5

This course provides the student an overview of the various aspects of nuclear pharmacy. This includes basic nuclear physics, radiation measurement and safety, regulatory considerations, radiopharmaceutical preparation, products, quality control, and imaging modalities.

PPRAG 1419: Topics in Women's Health

Credits 1.5

The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of advanced topics in women’s health particularly related to reproductive health. Expanded information in topics such as contraception, infertility, drug use in pregnancy, and mood disorders related to pregnancy are provided. The course utilizes various teaching methods including lectures, case studies, readings, assignments, and discussions. Students will develop a working knowledge to aid them in caring for women with gender-related disease states.

PPRAG 1420: Pharmacy Based Immunization Delivery

Credits 2.0

This course teaches the skills necessary to become a primary source for vaccine information and administration. It teaches the basics of immunology and focuses on practice implementation and legal/regulatory issues. Students must complete 12 hours of self-study prior to the class and must submit the completed material upon arrival to class.

PPRAG 1421: Dental Health and the Pharmacist

Credits 1.5

This course provides an overview of dentistry and its relation to healthcare. Discussion includes questions that pharmacists often are asked regarding oral lesions, injuries to the oral cavity, and efficacy of OTC remedies. Information about various dental specialties will help the pharmacist refer their patients to the appropriate specialist. Misuse and abuse of dental drugs and medications and investigation and enforcement of dental regulations concerning dmg abuse will be discussed.

PPRAG 1426: Putting Your Best Residency Foot Forward

Credits 1.5

Post-graduate pharmacy residency programs are highly valuable and are becoming increasingly competitive. This elective course provides guidance on the residency selection decision process, curriculum vita (CV) development, creation of a strong letter of intent and interviewing skills. Students will learn and apply how to incorporate experiences from their didactic, experiential, and co-curricular education into their residency application and interview. To meet the learning objectives, students will complete interactive written and verbal activities to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and abilities. Achievement of learning objectives will be evaluated by assessment rubrics tailored to each activity.

PPRAG 1427: Postmenopausal Women’s Health

Credits 1.5

This course provides an in-depth review of postmenopausal women’s health issues. Through active participation in patient case studies and class discussion, students will learn to design pharmacotherapeutic plans to address symptoms of menopause during the menopause transition and to reduce risk factors for chronic medical conditions common during this life stage.

PPRAG 1428: Acute Care Cardiology

Credits 3.0

This elective course provides students with an in-depth review and expansion of knowledge regarding the management of medical pharmacotherapy in patients with acute cardiovascular issues, building upon concepts that were introduced in Integrated Sequence 4 and 5. The class is focused on application of knowledge to improve patient care. Learning techniques that will be utilized include lecture, discussion, formulation of a Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process (PPCP) for patient cases, evaluation of primary literature, and student debates.

PPRAG 1431: Book Club

Credits 1.5

This professional elective course is designed to use a book club/current topics format to provide the pharmacy student with an introduction to the art of patient care and the issues healthcare providers face regarding their own biases and stereotypes. The purpose of this course is to thoughtfully tackle some of the assumptions we make as health care providers and explore ways to be more thoughtful in our decisions and care of our patients.

PPRAG 1432: Advanced Communication with the Spanish Speaking Patient

Credits 1.5

This elective will develop the basic verbal and written skills required to effectively communicate with the Spanish speaking patient in the pharmacy setting. There will be a strong focus on patient interviewing skills and counseling on the most common topics seen in the community setting. This course assumes the student is already familiar with basic Spanish and therefore introductory level Spanish.

PPRAG 1433: Introduction to Specialty Pharmacy

Credits 1.5

This elective that will provide an introduction to current therapies, management of patients and other operations requirements within specialties including Solid Organ Transplant/BMT, Oncology, Inflammatory (Rheumatology, Dermatology), and Infectious Disease (HIV and Hepatitis C). The course is composed of alternating disease state overview presentations with student case study presentations the following week for practical application.

PPRAG 1434: Advanced Oncology Therapeutics

Credits 1.5

This course focuses on the clinical aspects of the pharmaceutical care of patients with hematologic and oncologic diseases. Clinical topics include disease state management, supportive care, hospice/palliative care, management of drug shortages and literature evaluation.

PPRAG 1438: Managed Care

Credits 1.5

The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of managed care pharmacy and how it impacts the US healthcare system. The course prepares students to understand and learn about professional practice opportunities in managed care pharmacy by exploring: healthcare reform, managed healthcare delivery models, prescription benefit design, pharmacy networks, utilization management tools, P&T Committees, pharmacy data management, pharmacy benefit managers, specialty pharmacy and pharmaceutical manufacturers. In addition, the course focuses on how business principles are integrated into the managed care pharmacy department, and address how clinical pharmacy, quality improvement, medication therapy management/disease management programs are coordinated within the managed care pharmacy environment.

PPRAG 1439: Pediatric Pharmacotherapy

Credits 1.5

This course focuses on specific issues related to the treatment and care of pediatric patients. Clinical topics include common childhood illness and treatments as well as drug delivery systems used for pediatric patients, current controversies in pediatric pharmacotherapy, commonly used over the counter medications and alternative therapies used by pediatric patients. This course incorporates lectures, projects and reading assignments to enhance student learning about pediatric issues.

PPRAG 1441: Medication Therapy Management

Credits 1.5

This course introduces students to current trends in Medication Therapy Management (MTM) with a particular focus on the provision of pharmacist’s services as an integral part of managing patient drug therapy. Students will gain insight into the challenges and opportunities that are presented to pharmacists when they address drug therapy misadventures and perform comprehensive medication reviews for patients with complex drug regimes. Particular attention is focused on development of drug therapy intervention skills that will maximize the results achieved when patient interventions are performed. In addition, students learn basic information about how the online intervention process works. The course includes having students role play case study examples of both therapeutic interventions and comprehensive medication reviews.

PPRAG 1442: Advanced Geriatric Pharmacotherapy

Credits 1.5

This course is designed to enhance students’ knowledge and skills related to geriatric pharmacotherapy. The course provides an introduction to general principles of aging, roles of pharmacists in working with geriatric patients, and an overview of geriatric syndromes. The format of the course involves brief lectures, and students will be expected to actively participate in discussions and case-based assignments. There is an emphasis on managing the healthcare needs of patients with multiple comorbidities.

PPRAG 1443: Veterinary Pharmacology

Credits 1.5

This course is designed to enhance the knowledge of future community pharmacists in the area of small animal veterinary pharmacology, dispensing of common small animal prescriptions, and recommendations of OTC medications for common household pets. Primary focus will be on cats and dogs. This course includes an on-site session with CVM Faculty at the MWU Companion Animal Clinic.

PPRAG 1447: CPG Grand Rounds: Clinical Pearls

Credits 1.5

This elective course provides students with exposure to "Grand Rounds" where contemporary clinical content is taught utilizing patient cases. The presenters will be pharmacists in practice or in post-graduate training. Students will gain clinical knowledge and practice pearls on a potpourri of clinical topics and benefit from exposure to the "Grand Round" format, which is a common form of continuing education in practice. Students will also gain experience in providing constructive written feedback to near-peer presenters and insight regarding the difficulty in providing feedback that is clear and specific. This course will develop the student’s written communication skills which are a central element in the Pharmacist’s Patient Care Process (PPCP), as well as a vital component of personal and professional development. Additionally, this course will allow the students the opportunity to develop assessment, feedback, and self-awareness skills.

PPRAG 1448: Advanced Psychiatric Pharmacy

Credits 1.5

Students will develop advanced knowledge of mental health and mental illness as it relates to the practice of pharmacy in the clinical setting and define the role of pharmacists in providing mental healthcare.

PPRAG 1449: Advanced Research Methods: Using Analytics in Health Care Research

Credits 3.0

This course is designed to give students practical, hands-on experience in literature review, development of research questions and hypotheses, study design, analytics, and research reporting. Working iteratively throughout the course, students develop a research project on a topic of their choice, complete an ethics application, analyze the data, and produce a final research report. The report may be cited as a research project on applications for residency or fellowship and may be suitable for conversion after course completion to a poster presentation for one or more scientific meetings. Focus is on practical methods, effective project management, and basic interpretive techniques to facilitate research projects for residency, fellowship, or employment. The course prepares students to engage and collaborate effectively with a health care team, using evidence-based, accurate analysis and clear communication about statistical results.

PPRAG 1501: Clinical Skills Development 1

Credits 3.5

These courses integrate the skills needed to fulfill the professional responsibilities of pharmacy practice as they relate to patient-centered care and the patient care process. Principles taught in this course and the co-requisite courses will be utilized to provide the contextual framework for the skills considered.

PPRAG 1502: Clinical Skills Development 2

Credits 3.0

These courses integrate the skills needed to fulfill the professional responsibilities of pharmacy practice as they relate to patient-centered care and the patient care process. Principles taught in this course and the co-requisite courses will be utilized to provide the contextual framework for the skills considered.

PPRAG 1503: Clinical Skills Development 3

Credits 2.0

These courses integrate the skills needed to fulfill the professional responsibilities of pharmacy practice as they relate to patient-centered care and the patient care process. Principles taught in this course and the co-requisite courses will be utilized to provide the contextual framework for the skills considered.

PPRAG 1504: Clinical Skills Development 4

Credits 2.5

These courses integrate the skills needed to fulfill the professional responsibilities of pharmacy practice as they relate to patient-centered care and the patient care process. Principles taught in this course and the co-requisite courses will be utilized to provide the contextual framework for the skills considered.

PPRAG 1524: Pharmacy Law and Public Policy

Credits 2.5

This course presents principles of law and public policy as they relate to pharmacy practice under federal, state and local regulations. Topics include general rules and regulations governing pharmacy practice, controlled substances, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and public policy.

PPRAG 1532: Foundations of Clinical Reasoning

Credits 1.5

This course defines the fundamental concepts of clinical reasoning as it relates to the pharmacists' patient care process. Students will learn how cognitive bias can impact patient safety and will practice a framework for clinical reasoning that will serve as the foundation for subsequent clinical and experiential coursework.

PPRAG 1536: People, Patients and Populations

Credits 4.0

This course introduces several concepts including the patient’s perspective of health, illness, and patient-provider interactions, public health key concepts, educational assessment, and consultation related to medication use. The main goal of this course is to help students understand and think about healthcare through both the patient and population lens, as well as understanding their role as a healthcare provider. Sociological and psychological implications of living with chronic medical conditions are discussed. Students learn to consider how the patient feels and how they can impact both patient and population outcomes as health care professionals.

PPRAG 1571: Healthcare Systems

Credits 3.0

An overview of the organization, delivery and financing of medical and pharmaceutical care in the U.S. Particular emphasis is placed on the interdependent roles of pharmacists with other healthcare providers, and the key organizations and institutions that are involved in delivering pharmaceutical care to patients. Historical perspective is provided where it contributes to an understanding of contemporary practice.

PPRAG 1591: Introduction to Pharmacy Practice

Credits 1.0

This course will help students develop a foundation for future pharmacy practice. Based on class interest, students will explore various pharmacy career options through pharmacist interviews, guest speakers, and completion of the APhA Career Pathways Assessment. Students will begin to develop professional communication skills as they interview two pharmacists and one patient for a final paper, and use self-reflection to summarize the interview responses in a personal narrative. Students will also be provided with foundational knowledge in medical terminology, with two exams focusing solely on medical terminology. The final paper will serve as the final assessment of learning and integration.

PPRAG 1605: Clinical Skills Development 5

Credits 1.5

These courses integrate the skills needed to fulfill the professional responsibilities of pharmacy practice as they relate to patient-centered care and the patient care process. Principles taught in this course and the co-requisite courses will be utilized to provide the contextual framework for the skills considered.

PPRAG 1606: Clinical Skills Development 6

Credits 1.5

These courses integrate the skills needed to fulfill the professional responsibilities of pharmacy practice as they relate to patient-centered care and the patient care process. Principles taught in this course and the co-requisite courses will be utilized to provide the contextual framework for the skills considered.

PPRAG 1607: Clinical Skills Development 7

Credits 1.5

These courses integrate the skills needed to fulfill the professional responsibilities of pharmacy practice as they relate to patient-centered care and the patient care process. Principles taught in this course and the co-requisite courses will be utilized to provide the contextual framework for the skills considered.

PPRAG 1665: Ethical Decision Making

Credits 2.0

In daily pharmacy practice, pharmacists encounter a variety of behavioral and ethical issues related to interactions with patients, providers and healthcare organizations. This course presents the principles underlying the dynamics of these constantly changing interactions to help future pharmacists better understand, predict and ultimately change the nature of their interactions with patients, other providers and healthcare organizations. Future pharmacists who have mastered the concepts in this course will be better equipped to optimize the delivery of pharmaceutical care and ultimately achieve more positive patient outcomes

PPRAG 1667: Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Credits 2.0

This course is designed as a survey of complementary and alternative medicine. Students will be introduced to the theory and practice of some of the more popular complementary/alternative therapies (such as dietary supplements, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, homeopathy, herbal medicine, etc.). The course will include the use of complementary/alternative medicine associated with common disease states. Students will have the opportunity to research and present a complementary/alternative treatment to the class.

PPRAG 1672: Research Methods & Epidemiology for Healthcare Professionals

Credits 3.0

This course introduces students to statistics and research design. The course covers basic methodological concepts, study designs, descriptive and inferential statistical techniques, computerized statistical testing resources, and data sources commonly used in published pharmaceutical and medical research. Basic epidemiological metrics and computations are presented as well as the development and evaluation of research protocols, survey research, database analyses, and clinical drug investigations.

PPRAG 1675: Management 1

Credits 2.5

This course is an introduction to management concepts, principles and techniques that are applied in contemporary pharmacy practice and healthcare administration. The course is organized into four broad areas of managerial activity and responsibility: financial management, marketing management, operations management with an emphasis on medication safety, and an introduction to pharmacoeconomics.

PPRAG 1676: Evidence-Based Healthcare

Credits 3.0

In this course, students will learn and apply skills that will improve their ability to practice evidence-based healthcare (EBHC). Students were introduced to the steps of practicing EBHC and learned about Step 1 (identify a clinical question) and Step 2 (find relevant literature) of practicing EBHC in previous courses. This course focuses on Step 3 (critically evaluate literature) and Step 4 (apply information to patients).

PPRAG 1694: Introductory Community Experience

Credits 6.0

This experience provides an opportunity for students to participate in basic patient care and distribution services in a community or ambulatory care pharmacy practice setting. Pharmacy students, under the supervision of adjunct clinical faculty, gain experience in community pharmacy practice including the areas of professional communications, drug information retrieval, patient counseling on prescription, and OTC medications, medication distribution, extemporaneous products, and application of federal and state pharmacy laws.

PPRAG 1695: Introductory Institutional Experience

Credits 6.0

This experience provides an opportunity for students to participate in basic patient care and distribution services in an institutional pharmacy practice setting. Pharmacy students, under the supervision of adjunct clinical faculty, gain experience in institutional pharmacy practice including the areas of professional and patient communications, drug information retrieval, medication distribution systems, sterile product preparation, interprofessional activities, and application of federal and state pharmacy laws.

PPRAG 1701: Acute Care Management

Credits 4.5

This course integrates both the practice and patient care management of patients in the acute care (hospital and health-system) setting. Students will enhance their acute care knowledge through case-based lecture and clinical application in the corresponding Clinical Skills Development course.

PPRAG 1708: Clinical Skills Development 8

Credits 1.5

These courses integrate the skills needed to fulfill the professional responsibilities of pharmacy practice as they relate to patient-centered care and the patient care process. Principles taught in this course and the co-requisite courses will be utilized to provide the contextual framework for the skills considered.

PPRAG 1737: Disease State Management

Credits 4.5

This course focuses on the skills necessary for pharmacist-directed management of common ambulatory medical conditions involving the cardiac, pulmonary, and endocrine systems. The course builds upon the fundamental information provided in the Integrated Sequence through the incorporation of disease prevention strategies and medication therapy management principles into complex patient casework.

PPRAG 1776: Management 2

Credits 2.0

This course prepares students to engage in the classic functions of a human resource manager in the pharmacy practice setting including planning, organizing, decision making, staffing, leading or directing, communicating, motivating and evaluating. This course combines predesigned law room workshops and lecture series from MWU-CPG faculty and invited guest lectures including directors/chiefs of pharmacy, human resource managers and clinical managers.

PPRAG 1790: Pharm.D. Seminar

Credits 4.0

This series of courses provides the student an opportunity to review pharmacy-related concepts and clinical reasoning skills to prepare them to be successful, competent pharmacists that are able to contribute meaningfully to the profession. Topics covered will systematically address the six NAPLEX® Competency Statements: Obtain, Interpret, or Assess Data, Medical, or Patient Information; Identify Drug Characteristics; Develop or Manage Treatment Plans; Perform Calculations; Compound, Dispense, or Administer Drugs, or Manage Delivery Systems; and Develop or Manage Practice or Medication-Use Systems to Ensure Safety and Quality.

PPRAG 1791: Advanced Community Pharmacy Practice Experience

Credits 9.0

This course will build upon the foundation of the introductory pharmacy practice experiences provided in the PS-2 year and the didactic curriculum. Under preceptor supervision, the student participates in the required APPE community course.

PPRAG 1792: Advanced Acute Care Pharmacy Practice Experience

Credits 9.0

This course will build upon the foundation of the introductory pharmacy practice experiences provided in the PS-2 year and the didactic curriculum. Under preceptor supervision, the student participates in the required APPE acute care course.

PPRAG 1794: Advanced Health System Pharmacy Practice Experience

Credits 9.0

This course will build upon the foundation of the introductory pharmacy practice experiences provided in the PS-2 year and the didactic curriculum. Under preceptor supervision, the student participates in the required APPE health system course.

PPRAG 1796: Elective Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience

Credits 9.0

This course will build upon the foundation of the introductory pharmacy practice experiences provided in the PS-2 year and the didactic curriculum. Under preceptor supervision, the student participates in the elective APPE non-patient care course. Only one APPE experience may be a non-patient care experience.