A decade ago, students interested in a healthcare career as a pharmacist had to look outside Middle Tennessee to pursue their education. Today, Nashville is home to two programs that are continuing to expand and innovate.
Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences has recently debuted a new sterile compounding lab and has added dual degree programs over the past couple of years that add informatics and management skills to a pharmacist’s clinical competencies. At Belmont University College of Pharmacy, programming has been put in place to make transitions along the continuum of education easier … from early assurance into the doctoral program for qualified pre-pharm undergrads to newly announced residency and fellowship partnerships.
Lipscomb University
Tennessee was hit hard by the devastating fungal meningitis outbreak in 2012 that claimed more than 60 lives nationally and 16 here at home. The tainted injections were traced back to improper procedures at the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts.
“With the meningitis outbreak, the nation got focused on the quality and preparation of those products,” said Roger Davis, PharmD, dean of Lipscomb’s College of Pharmacy. While the school already taught aseptic technique in a small laboratory, the 2012 national tragedy underscored the consequences of making mistakes.
“We made the commitment at that point that even though we were doing a competent job of preparing our students in this particular area of compounding, we needed to do even more,” Davis said. “We increased the intensity of the training and expanded the lab capabilities and deepened our assessment of the training.” Now, he continued, “We can train more students in a better environment and assess their technique in a much more progressive way.”
Effective January of last year, the Tennessee Board of Pharmacy required all licensed pharmacies to comply with applicable sections of the of the U.S. Pharmacopeia 797 standards. Davis said the Lipscomb University lab not only meets those standards but exceeds them, continually exposing students to best practices prior to experiential practice in the community.
Co-opting space from another lab that had been moved, Lipscomb School of Pharmacy built a new sterile compounding lab that opened in the spring and was put into full use with this fall’s incoming class. At just over 1,000 square feet, the new $500,000 facility offers the same equipment and technology that students will find in professional compounding pharmacies. Additionally, audio/video equipment allows faculty to observe, capture and assess aseptic practices including gowning and garbing, compounding, and cleaning and disinfecting.
The lab features six laminar airflow workbenches, allowing students to prepare non-hazardous sterile products, and a biological safety cabinet to prepare hazardous sterile products including simulated chemotherapy drugs. “We added the capability to compound the chemo drugs, which is a different process because you have to protect the pharmacist who is preparing the product, as well as the patient who will consume it,” Davis explained.
He added the School of Pharmacy will also work with the community to create continuing education opportunities to enhance the training and skills of those already working in the community.
Along those same lines of preparing students to meet ‘real world’ needs, Davis said the university added new dual degree programs over the last few years to better enable PharmD students to manage people, patients, data sets, and outcomes. In addition to the clinical component in pharmacy, students have the option to earn a master’s degree in Health Care Informatics or in Management. “Both of these can be completed within the four years that is required of the doctoral program,” Davis said. “It’s a great deal for students,” he added of getting that additional degree from both a cost and time standpoint.
“There’s a huge need in the healthcare industry for people who can handle large amounts of data,” Davis said. “It’s the underpinning for population health.”
The impetus behind the new lab and dual degrees is really the same, Davis noted. At the core of the programming is a desire to prepare practitioners at a higher level of competency to meet the nation’s increasingly complex healthcare needs.
“We try to prepare our students so they move into the marketplace in a very quick and productive manner,” he concluded.
Belmont University
Over the last few months, Belmont University College of Pharmacy has announced several additions to the continuum of education. In July, Belmont and Nashville-based Aegis Sciences announced the launch of a pharmacy fellowship program. The fellows will complete an intensive two-year postgraduate training program focused on drug information, evidence-based practice, teaching, and research.
The program is one of approximately 60 postgraduate pharmacy fellowships in the country and offers a unique training experience in areas not widely available in pharmacy training. Katie Miller, PharmD, Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS), was named the fellowship director.
In August, Belmont announced a post-graduate pharmacy residency at Saint Thomas Rutherford in partnership with the Christy-Houston Foundation. Citing the ever-increasing complexity and fast pace of healthcare service innovation, Belmont officials said there is an increasing demand for pharmacists with post-graduate residencies that provide training in management, clinical service provision, alternative therapies and budgetary controls. However last year, there were 32 percent more pharmacists desiring such a residency than there were training sites nationally.
“This helps create jobs in Rutherford County, where the Christy-Houston Foundation focuses, helps the hospital expand its clinical and administrative services and helps Belmont establish additional training sites,” said Phil Johnston, PharmD, dean of Belmont’s College of Pharmacy. “Together, this partnership will benefit recent graduates, the patients of Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital and the residents of Rutherford County.”
The Christy-Houston Foundation provided $123,740 as seed money for the two-resident program. In addition to this gift, the foundation has provided funding for state-of-the-art equipment for Belmont’s School of Occupational Therapy and the Christy-Houston Drug Information Center at Belmont’s College of Pharmacy, a center that is utilized continuously by 300 students, 30 full-time faculty and over 700 volunteer pharmacists.
However, before students can get to post-graduate work, they must first successfully complete the PharmD program. Belmont has recently announced an ‘early assurance’ program for qualifying incoming freshmen to the pre-pharmacy undergraduate degree program.
Students must meet a number of requirements out of high school, indicate an interest in the program as an incoming freshman, and complete a successful interview with the College of Pharmacy during a Belmont Preview Day or campus visit prior to enrollment. Once accepted to the university, additional requirements must be met and grade point averages maintained.
However, those who meet all the requirements are assured admission to the College of Pharmacy. Other benefits include being assigned a faculty advisor from the PharmD program while still an undergrad, preferred access to available volunteer and shadowing opportunities and an open invitation to begin attending lectures, seminars and other special events by the College of Pharmacy to increase exposure to the field from the beginning of a student’s college career.
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