Curriculum

Doctor of Pharmacy

Touro College of Pharmacy offers a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) program that prepares students for entry-level pharmacy practice. Our four-year curriculum emphasizes guided, individual learning through rigorous coursework and extensive practice experience. The program consists of 2 ½ years of Pre-Advanced Pharmacy training and 1 ½ years of Advanced Pharmacy training. Our PharmD curriculum embodies a particular approach to Pharmacy education—we make use of more experiential education than most other colleges of pharmacy. After four years, graduates are fully prepared to seek licensure and begin careers in pharmacy.

Upon completing the program, students become eligible to take all two parts of the New York State pharmacist licensing examination. As practicing pharmacists, many TCOP graduates use their skills to serve patients and families in community or hospital settings and others opt to pursue careers in academia, the pharmaceutical industry, or in clinical research.

Program Overview

Students spend the first 2 ½ years of their pharmacy school careers in the classroom, focusing on mastering the many aspects of pharmaceutical science, patient-centered care, evidence-based practice, and medication management. The final 1 ½ years are devoted to completing practice experiences at the College’s affiliate sites, learning first-hand about clinical practice, ambulatory care, general medicine, and institutional and community pharmacy practice.

Curriculum Philosophy

The curriculum philosophy of Touro College of Pharmacy is to instill in our student pharmacists a commitment to collaborative patient-and -family-centered care to all communities. Our approach is to provide a solid grounding in the biomedical, pharmaceutical, social, behavioral, managerial, and clinical sciences that prepares students to develop the necessary abilities and skills to engage in evidence-based practices serving individual and public health needs. These abilities and skills are honed through active learning strategies in classrooms and laboratories, participation in co-curricular opportunities, and immersion in our uniquely comprehensive pharmacy practice experiences.

A central foundation of our philosophy is encouraging our students to a lifetime commitment of continuing professional development through the strategic use of developmental portfolios. Students are encouraged to refine their problem-solving and critical thinking skills utilizing them to turn issues and concerns into opportunities for assuming leadership in innovative approaches to practice; advocacy for patients and the profession; and serving a key role in addressing the health care needs of today and tomorrow.

Unique Curriculum Design

The design of the curriculum is based upon the 2.5+1.5 Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum. In this design, the two major components consist of students in the classroom for the first two and half years and receive their experiential education for the remainder time of the program.

Our curriculum has a strong focus on experiential education and the role of the pharmacist, with significant attention paid to developing the necessary communication and patient care skills necessary. Student learning is a high priority; the curriculum is designed to produce highly competent pharmacy professionals able to practice in today’s environment and capable of adapting to new and changing roles in the evolving US health care system. The curricular design, delivery, and assessment were developed to build a student-centered, interactive learning environment focused on achievement of outcomes. Graduates of this curriculum will be critical thinkers able to meet the increasing expectations of the workplace, empowered to adapt throughout their careers using their capabilities to solve problems, to educate themselves and others, and to maintain a commitment to life-long learning.

The experiential component allows students the opportunity to use the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for competent pharmacists in an actual pharmacy setting. The experiential program is divided into two parts, each which has increasing levels of responsibility and clinical maturity: the Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPE) and the Advance Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPE). These IPPE and APPE experiential phases are practiced at sites off- campus. Students are responsible for their own transport to the site. If the site requires overnight stays, the student will be responsible for finding his/her own lodging. The rationale for the extension of clinical training in the curriculum reflects the current conditions requiring pharmacists to perform more clinical responsibilities and to participate in more patient care experiences.

The syllabus in the didactic as well as experiential courses is the tool that brings the curriculum to the student. The syllabus serves as a covenant between the student and his/her teacher. Its purpose is to provide the student with the professor’s requirements for success in the course by providing course goals, objectives, grading schemes, expected outcomes, assessment methods (tests, etc.), texts/readings, ADA policy, and class schedule. Professors may add more specific information for his/her individual class. All syllabi are available online through Canvas.