Faculty & Staff
Faculty and Staff Handbook » School of Pharmacy
Teaching Philosophy
An Educational Blueprint for the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy consists of three parts: the Mission statement, Tech's ten abilities, and the knowledge base. These documents represent the foundation of a competency-based curriculum for the pharmacy school.
The rationale animating the competency-based curriculum stems from the need to define the outcomes of the educational process: what are the desirable qualities of a pharmacy school graduate, and what constitutes the essential knowledge base that will enable a graduate to make a successful transition to his/her chosen pharmacy field. The ten abilities and the knowledge base delineate these outcomes in concrete terms, whereas the mission statement expresses the collective vision of what motivates and unifies administration, faculty, and Pharm.D. candidates. Each ability has specific components of process, knowledge, and skill. Courses that makeup the curriculum will focus on one or all of those component parts of the abilities at what is felt to be the critical time for candidate optimal academic maturation.
Tech's ten abilities encompass a broad range of expectations for future pharmacists, ranging from traditional dispensing skills to the more concrete aspects of pharmaceutical care. Each of the abilities includes a list of specific criteria that the Pharm.D. candidate is expected to master at a certain level of achievement, depending upon the candidate's stage of professional development.
The abilities draw upon the content of the knowledge base to create specific tasks for Pharm.D. candidate learning and assessment. The knowledge base matrices (pg 7) illustrates the incorporation of two separate matrices. The first matrix, Basic Science Matrix, focuses primarily on the sciences basic to pharmacy; the horizontal axis represents the levels of organization of the human organism, and the vertical axis represents structural and functional dimensions. The second matrix, Pharmacy practice approaches to health & disease, represents the relationship between the type of encounters between pharmacist and patient.
The high impact problems serve to anchor the student's content knowledge into the relevance of practice. The matrices give the faculty and candidates guidance on the depth of understanding are important for success in the program. A problem-based curriculum stresses depth of knowledge rather than breadth.
Many topics in the knowledge base intentionally permit wide latitude by the instructor in the selection of specific content with which to address the topic. Faculty should select specific content with these few provisos:
- Content should be selected based on its teaching value according to
- prevalence
- importance
- general applicability to the problem list
- particular illustrative value.
- Content should be selected to present sufficient examples so as to make general principles clear. It is not desirable to present examples beyond that necessary to achieve this objective.
- Content should be selected that is relevant to the practice of pharmacy.
Thus, the knowledge base represents the core content of our pharmacy curriculum. Each Pharm.D. candidate must possess this core of knowledge upon graduation. In addition the candidate will gain advanced knowledge by pursuing their own interests as well as being exposed to the wide variety of faculty interests and in solving problems presented within the context of drug-related issues. Core knowledge is present within individual courses of the curriculum at the same time each instructor is cognizant of the 10 abilities. The content is thus delivered in a way to allow each Pharm.D. candidate to comprehend process and develop specific skills.
- Outcome values are based on mutual respect, integrity, and individual accountability.
- Our commitment to the citizens of the West Texas fosters community involvement and enhances our commitment to serve their primary and rural health care needs. This perspective is supported by a sound biologic and behavioral understanding of health care.
- Our work is characterized by its quality and our willingness to: change, take risks, make timely and vigilant decisions, and evaluate our performances against stated goals.
- Our academic and health care environments: encourage open debate and dialogue, the introduction of new ideas and practices, innovation through collaboration, and an unwavering commitment to self-improvement and self-renewal.
- Our curriculum is centered on our doctoral candidates who themselves assume primary responsibility for their own educational outcomes; faculty and staff serve as mentors and facilitators in a shared partnership with the candidates. The collaboration among the doctoral candidates, staff, and faculty is evident in supportive, friendly, and open interactions.
- Our commitment to pharmaceutical education, pharmacy practice, and the pharmaceutical sciences is demonstrated in our familiarity with the contribution to the published literature.
- Our commitment to our profession and its scientific foundation encourages us to integrate the basic and applied pharmaceutical sciences with the practice of pharmacy throughout the curriculum and in our daily practices.
- Our collective commitment to prepare doctoral candidates for both today's and tomorrow's practice encourages us to employ state-of-the-art technologies in all aspects of our professional programs. Doctoral candidates, reflecting this commitment, will contribute to solving health care problems through innovation, communication, and dedication to improving the community as a whole.
The results of embracing and living the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy values are:
- Quality, innovative pharmaceutical education;
- Preparation of professionals with an unwavering ethical foundation;
- A positive, rewarding, and stimulating work environment;
- A noticeable and positive impact on the communities in which we work, study, and live.
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