Return to: Academic Programs

(http://www.ulm.edu/pharmacy)

Benny L. Blaylock, Dean

Bienville, 102C

Mission Statement

The College of Pharmacy at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, Louisiana’s College of Pharmacy, endeavors to create a professional learning environment that embraces the concept of continual quality improvement. This environment enables the College to produce and maintain excellent academic, research and service programs that directly enhance the health and environment of the state of Louisiana and beyond.

The mission of the College of Pharmacy (COP) is to educate future health care professionals to meet the diverse pharmaceutical care needs of the people of Louisiana and to serve the professions of pharmacy and toxicology through a balanced program of education, research, service, and patient care.

The strategic decisions and daily operations of the College’s faculty and staff are reflective of the following values:

* Responsibility — acting morally, ethically, and with integrity, as well as being accountable for one’s actions. Students, faculty, and staff have a duty to adhere to these standards. We also recognize our duty to be thoughtful stewards of those resources entrusted to us.

* Innovation — the synthesis, embodiment, or combination of knowledge in original, relevant, valued new products, processes, or services, especially as related to promoting optimal patient and educational outcomes.

* Collaboration — the development of educational, research and practice partnerships among students, practitioners, educators, and other stakeholders.

* Quality — the pursuit of excellence, which is cultivated and assessed through a process of continual quality improvement.

* Professionalism — the demonstration of structural, attitudinal, and behavioral attributes of a profession and its members. Certain professional attributes, including a service orientation; caring; respect for others; accountability and responsibility for one’s action; integrity; honesty; ethically sound decision making; and a commitment to life-long learning are fundamental to our functioning as learners, educators, researchers, scholars, and practitioners of pharmacy.

In addition to the values stated above, we have set the following goals:

Education

1. Educate entry-level pharmacy practitioners to deliver pharmacy care in a dynamic, culturally diverse society, enabling graduates to enter a wide range of existing or emerging health care practices.
2. Provide effective graduate education in the pharmaceutical and toxicological sciences.
3. Recognize professional education as an individual process that begins in the academic setting and continues throughout the professional career, not only for the student but educators and practitioners as well.
4. Model attitudes and values that emphasize the importance of a team approach to patient-centered care.
5. Integrate basic, clinical, administrative and toxicological sciences.

Research/Scholarly Activity

1. Promote, develop and sustain excellence in graduate study and research in the clinical, basic, social and administrative sciences, thereby adding to the body of knowledge for scientists and educators in pharmacy, toxicology and related fields.
2. Promote research and scholarship that lead to improved patient care.
3. Promote research and scholarship that lead to improved educational outcomes.
4. Assess and evaluate all research and scholarly activity undertaken within the College.
5. Provide appropriate mentorship for faculty development.

Service

1. Address the health care and other societal needs by involving faculty, staff, and students in service activities at the University, local, state, national and international levels.
2. Promote wellness and disease prevention.
3. Promote therapeutic interventions, rational medication use, and the judicious use of economic resources.
4. Advance student and faculty participation and leadership in professional organizations.

Pharmacy Practice

1. Promote and optimize pharmacy care in order to improve patient outcomes.
2. Promote postgraduate professional training and assume an active role in the development of residencies and fellowships.

Reflection upon our stated mission, values, and goals has led us to develop the following educational philosophy:

The entry level Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum is an integration of biomedical, pharmaceutical, clinical, and administrative sciences to prepare practitioners who can effectively provide pharmaceutical care in a changing profession. Consistent with the educational philosophy of the University, the educational process is based on a student-centered approach that values life-long learning and the development of complex problem solving skills. Faculty demonstrate through their teaching, practice, and research the highest standards of professionalism and a passion for quality patient care.

Students will demonstrate the following:

1. A commitment to developing life-long learning habits.
2. The abilities required for a competent and contemporary patient-centered pharmacy practice.
3. Behaviors and attitudes necessary for professional growth and development.

GENERAL INFORMATION

The College of Pharmacy was established by the State Board of Education on August 11, 1956 and continues to serve as Louisiana’s sole State supported Pharmacy Program.  The College of Pharmacy continues to evolve to meet the health care needs of the State’s population, and in 1998, began to offer the Doctor of Pharmacy degree as its sole entry level professional pharmacy degree.  The College also offers the State’s only masters and doctor of philosophy degrees in the areas of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences.  The Bachelor of Science program in Toxicology was initiated in 1982 and is one of only six programs in the country.  The College of Pharmacy currently includes three academic departments - Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences, Clinical and Administrative Sciences, and Toxicology.

Accreditation

The Doctor of Pharmacy program in the College of Pharmacy is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education. The College of Pharmacy is a member of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, an organization whose mission is to promote pharmaceutical education and research.

Core Curriculum

All majors in baccalaureate curricula having pre-professional and professional segments within the College of Pharmacy complete a 42-hour general education core curriculum consisting of English, 6 hours; Mathematics, 6 hours; Natural Sciences, 9 hours; Fine Arts, 3 hours; Humanities, 9 hours; and Social Sciences, 6 hours; University Seminar (1), and University Capstone, 3 hours.

Doctor of Pharmacy Program

The Doctor of Pharmacy degree is the highest level of applied professional education offered in pharmacy. It is designed to assure development of clinical skills and judgment with the acquisition of the confidence necessary to assess therapeutic problems and to be an active participant in decision-making processes related to pharmaceutical care. The program is designed to provide a broad spectrum of study in the administrative, biological, clinical, pharmaceutical, and social sci¬ences to prepare the graduate for careers in academ¬ic, ambulatory, community, industrial and institutional settings.

Admission to the Doctor of Pharmacy requires pre¬paratory coursework focusing in the areas of biological, chemical and physical sciences, and written and oral communications which need to be completed prior to admission into the College of Pharmacy. Students wishing to pursue a career in pharmacy are encour¬aged to complete their pre-professional requirements in conjunction with pursuing a four year degree (e.g., toxicology, biology, chemistry, etc.). Pre-professional preparatory coursework may be completed at any accredited university. Students aspiring to complete their pre-professional preparatory coursework at the University of Louisiana at Monroe must meet the admis¬sion requirements for the University. Students with a “Pre-Pharmacy” major designation must present a 2.8 cumulative grade point average once they have earned 70 hours to maintain the designation. Students who fail to present a 2.8 grade point average will be required to change their major to LUIO (undeclared) or another major at the 70 hour mark.

Upon completion of the preparatory course¬work, students may apply for admission to the Doctor of Pharmacy program in the College of Pharmacy. Admission to the program is competitive and, at a minimum, is based on cumulative pre-professional preparatory course work grade point average, written and oral communication skills, and scores on the Pharmacy College Admission Test.

Students applying for admission to the College of Pharmacy must meet the following academic requirements:

1. 1. Have a minimum 2.75 cumulative grade point average;
2. Meet the Louisiana Board of Regents’ core curriculum requirements with a grade of “C” or better in each core course;
3. Complete the following course and semester hour requirements with a grade of “C” or better:
   1. Biology
      1. Microbiology with laboratory (4 semester credits or equivalent)
      2. Human or comparative anatomy with lab and human or mammalian physiology with lab (8 semester credits or equivalent)
      3. Cell biology or cell physiology (3 semester credits or equivalent)
      4. Genetics (3 semester credits or equivalent)
   2. Business
      1. Economics (3 semester credits or equiva¬lent)
   3. Chemistry
      1. Inorganic chemistry with laboratories (8 semester credits or equivalent)
      2. Or 3. Biochemistry (3 semester credits or equivalent)
   4. English
      1. English composition (6 semester credits or equivalent)
      2. Technical writing (3 semester credits or equivalent)
   5. Humanities
      1. Public Speaking (3 semester credits or equivalent)
   6. Mathematics
      1. Calculus (3 semester credits or equivalent)
   7. Physics
      1. General physics with laboratories (4 semester credits or equivalent)
   8. h. Statistics
      1. 1. Statistics (3 semester credits or equivalent)
4. Meet the technical standards of the College of Pharmacy, and
5. Obtain a competitive Pharmacy College Admissions Test score.

For students attending the University of Louisiana at Monroe for their pre-professional require¬ments, courses listed online at www.ulm.edu/pharmacy/ will fulfill the College of Pharmacy’s pre-professional requirements. This list along with course descriptions provided in the undergraduate or graduate and professional catalog also provide students attending other state or out of state institutions guidance concerning course content for pre-professional requirements.

Pharmacy, Pharm. D.

Return to: Academic Programs