College of Pharmacy open house exciting for incoming students
October 18, 2015
By Ying Jiang
The College of Pharmacy’s Doctor of Pharmacy program, also known as PharmD, hosted an open house Saturday for high school and college students who are interested in the pharmacy program.
The event provided guests with the opportunity to learn about the pharmacy profession and career opportunities. It included a review of the pre-pharmacy and admission requirements, as well as the introduction of PharmD’s program curriculum, a student panel question and answer session and optional activities.
The open house featured two degree programs, the PharmD professional program and the graduate in Pharmaceutical Sciences Ph.D. program.
“I think the program is awesome, I want to get my business degree and pharmacy degree here,” said Shelby Blanton, a chemistry sophomore at Eastern Kentucky University.
The College of Pharmacy currently has 530 PharmD students, 67 Ph.D. students and 18 post-doctoral scholars. The PharmD program requires two to three years of college prerequisites plus four years of professional pharmacy school, but it does not require a bachelor’s degree.
Kelly Smith, the interim dean of the College of Pharmacy, said the PharmD has a graduation rate of more than 95 percent, and a North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination first-time pass rate of more than 99 percent.
“Pharmacy is the third largest group of health care providers, after physicians and nurses,” said Trenika Mitchell, a PharmD clinical assistant professor. “As far as being a link, we are the link between the physicians and medications.”
Craig Martin, a clinical associate professor and the director of professional practice development for the College of Pharmacy and the UK HealthCare Pharmacy Services, said the PharmD program focuses less on traditional lectures and more on real-life, complex health care problems. Students also work in interprofessional teams.
“There are so many resources and the faculty are very helpful,” said Sela Cathright, a first year student at UK. “Definitely … keep coming out to things like this open house, and anytime we have a lot opportunities to learn more about the program. Definitely do that before you decide what you want to do.”
