Elizabeth City State University received a $750,000 grant from the GlaxoSmithKline Foundation to enhance experiential training for students enrolled in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill/ECSU Doctor of Pharmacy Partnership Program.
Experiential training is a central program component because it prepares pharmacy students to become comprehensive pharmacist professionals who are drug information experts.
Graduates of the program are prepared to counsel patients, to work together with other health care professionals, to provide disease management and medication management services and to safely dispense medications.
Professors at ECSU and the UNC School of Pharmacy collaborate with practicing pharmacists to train pharmacy students on the front lines of the healthcare system. Pharmacy students work in select hospitals, pharmacies, clinics, health departments, and a variety of other settings.
Currently, northeastern North Carolina has an insufficient number of sites where pharmacy students can complete those advanced practice experiences.
Establishing a Drug Information Center
From the GlaxoSmithKline Foundation grant, up to $500,000 will be used to establish advanced practice experiences in northeastern North Carolina for fourth-year students enrolled in the Doctor of Pharmacy Program.
Up to $250,000 of the grant will establish and outfit a Drug Information Center at ECSU that will benefit medical professionals as well as the general public in the communities that ECSU serves.
Dr. Huyla Coker, Director of the UNC-Chapel Hill/ECSU Doctor of Pharmacy Partnership Program, said the grant funds will allow pharmacy students at ECSU to complete additional training in the region. Coker is a licensed pharmacist, a UNC School of Pharmacy alumnus and an assistant professor at ECSU.
"The fourth year advanced practice experiences are crucial for students enrolled in the PharmD program. In these sites students develop skills to apply years of coursework to actual patients.This is where they transition from pharmacy students to mature pharmacy professionals and the next generation of pharmacists in your local pharmacy, hospital, etc.," Coker said.
The program was created by the UNC Board of Governors in 2005 to address the shortage of pharmacists that is a rapidly growing problem in North Carolina and across the nation. It combines the UNC School of Pharmacy's reputation for graduating highly qualified pharmacists with ECSU's location in one of the more remote regions of the state.