Spotlight
Pharmacy Advances
| USF Health
Kevin Sneed, far right, founding dean of the College of Pharmacy, stands with students at the 2012 White Coat Ceremony.
Photo by Eric Younghans | USF Health
With her grades and work experience, Morgen Schmitt could have had her pick of pharmacy schools, but she doesn’t hesitate when asked about her decision to enter the Tampa-based USF Health College of Pharmacy’s first class.
“I looked at a lot of programs, and, hands down, USF’s had the best curriculum,” says Schmitt, now in her second year of the four-year USF Doctor of Pharmacy degree program.
Schmitt has no doubt that she will be ready to take on a leadership role as a clinical pharmacist when she graduates. “I want to be a vital part of shaping the healthcare transformations that will improve patient care and quality of life and reduce medication errors.”
That passion among students to embrace the challenges of a changing health system does not surprise Kevin Sneed, the college’s founding dean. Built around the idea that pharmacists will be the hub of the future healthcare team, the innovative, rigorous curriculum emphasizes a collaborative approach to patient care and research among pharmacy, medicine, nursing, public health and other health professions.
The college continues to advance on a fast track. Recent program successes and highlights include:
- This past summer, the program was awarded candidate accreditation status by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education.
- The increasingly competitive program attracted nearly 800 applicants for 100 spots in the 2013 entering class.
- This year, USF pharmacy students begin working alongside medical students and treatment teams in the USF Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation, where they will demonstrate competency preparing medication orders safely in a life-like virtual environment.
- With a comprehensive array of clinical internship sites, USF offers more training resources than virtually any other pharmacy program in the Southeast.
- USF’s alliance with CoreRX, a research-based drug development firm, is just one example of the college’s commitment to entrepreneurial academic partnerships offering students hands-on experience managing and delivering technologically-advanced pharmaceutical care.
According to Sneed, USF is at the forefront of preparing a new breed of healthcare practitioner who can lead, innovate and work effectively in teams.
“If we are truly concerned about improving the health of patients while keeping costs down, then more fully integrating pharmacists into medication therapy decisions is critical to make sure we get the right patient the right drug, at the right time.”