Academic Information
SCHOOL OF PHARMACY PHILOSOPHY
Traditionally, the pharmacist's role has been that of a dispenser of medications. However, this traditional method of practice is no longer adequate to ensure safety and effectiveness in the use of medications and health devices. The focus of practice must change from one of product distribution to a more expansive duty; assuming the responsibility for our patients' outcomes from the medications we dispense.
Health care reform has put an emphasis on primary health care. This emphasis coupled with a lack of access, increasingly rising costs, and a concern for quality is placing the pharmacist in an important role as a member of the primary health care delivery team.
Pharmacies are located in most rural communities and throughout inner cities and urban sprawl across the country. This physical placement of the pharmacist, who is trained in delivering comprehensive care to the public, allows access to primary health care where it is critically lacking. The role of the pharmacist as a member of the primary health care team does not replace the physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner, but enhances their effectiveness. The pharmaceutical services provided in this changing arena will include participating in the drug therapy decision process through recommending therapeutic objectives, selecting the most appropriate drug product to achieve the desired therapeutic outcomes given the patient's unique characteristics, determining dose and dosage schedule, selecting the drug product source of supply and drug preparation, and monitoring the patient's response to the therapy so that the patient receives the optimal benefits with minimal adverse drug effects.
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy offers the degree of Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) with this expanded role of the pharmacist in mind. The effective delivery of essential primary health care services requires a greater responsibility of the pharmacist and a greater depth and breadth of education to support it.
It is a goal of all educators to foster within students the desire to learn and the ability to discover. Our curriculum has been designed to encourage intellectual development and help the student become a competent and skilled professional pharmacist. This is accomplished through conceptual competence, technical competence, integrated competence and career marketability.
Pharmaceutical education must provide students a fundamentally strong science base enabling them to evaluate clinical studies and use data to reach conclusions regarding a variety of issues. Students must be mathematically competent in the resolution of problems related to drug therapy. Analytical thinking must be cultivated, allowing today's pharmacy student to be effective in decision making. Communication skills are essential in preparing the student to be an effective pharmacist. Graduates must have an understanding of the social context in which their profession is practiced. They must learn to first listen in order to effectively convey information regarding drug therapies. There must also be a sensitivity to patients of all socio-economic levels and whose native language is not English.
TTUHSC School of Pharmacy program is student centered, focusing on problem-based educational strategies. The curriculum provides an integrated course context of pathophysiology, pharmacology, medicinal chemistry and therapeutics. It offers expanded practice management instruction and clinical experiences early and throughout the four-year professional program. Each of the curricular and instructional strategies have been precisely balanced to give the academic and clinical preparation to optimally succeed in any pharmaceutical profession.