Training the Future Pharmacist
An innovative Pharm.D. curriculum introduced in 2015 is preparing pharmacists to be health care leaders.
A MODERNIZED CURRICULUM

t’s 8 a.m. on a Thursday morning. First-year pharmacy student Raul Fagundez settles into his seat with his laptop and a full cup of coffee. More than a dozen of his classmates are already in the Gainesville classroom — filling seats at the 24 circular tables. Fagundez, a Miami native, gives a casual glace at one of the 16 large television monitors circling the room. State-of-the-art videoconferencing technology allows him to see peers in Jacksonville and Orlando already preparing for class.
In the next 15 minutes, five of Fagundez’s teammates join him at the table. Their conversations revolve around presentation slides and class notes in anticipation of an individual and team quiz at the beginning of class. The team has been together since the start of school in August and relies upon each other to evaluate patient cases, take team quizzes and for moral support.
Welcome to the training environment for the 21st-century pharmacist. At the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, an innovative Pharm.D. curriculum introduced in 2015 is preparing pharmacists to be health care leaders — while embracing new ideas for teaching and empowering graduates to be lifelong learners. Its introduction has put UF at the forefront of pharmacy colleges.
Designed to prepare graduates for pharmacy practice into the 2060s, the curriculum focuses on personal and professional development, both of which are key to becoming a highly effective clinician. The college adopted a team-based learning approach that features students working in teams of six to address a case study or issue. Students learn to rely on each other to solve problems and agree on the best health care decisions. Teams of students in Gainesville, Jacksonville and Orlando are connected via videoconferencing and seamlessly participate in classroom activities together. Students also have interprofessional experiences that involve them in teamwork, further developing attitudes and skills to help them excel in health care.
“Today’s health care providers are encouraged to work in interprofessional teams to provide patient-centered care,” said Diane Beck, Pharm.D., ’77 and ’79, a professor emeritus and former associate dean for curricular affairs, who led implementation of the new curriculum. “It is only natural that a student’s educational training mirrors today’s health care environment.”
Video lectures are available on-demand prior to each class to provide fundamental knowledge. Most classes begin with an individual quiz to assess readiness, followed by a team quiz. Beck said students usually see improvements in the team score, which reinforces the benefits of working in teams.
Leading the classroom sessions are basic science and clinical faculty teaching together. The integrated courses connect science and pharmacy practice, so students can learn about multiple perspectives of a disease state simultaneously. Complementing the classroom sessions are skills lab activities throughout a student’s three years on campus. Each week, students participate in a skills lab activity that builds on their clinical knowledge and provides hands-on training. In addition, multiple milestone assessments are built into the curriculum to measure readiness for practice.
“Students must show competency and the outcomes we want them to achieve,” Beck said. “If they can perform tasks we require of them, we’re confident they will enter their fourth-year clinical rotations ready to apply their knowledge and contribute in patient care.”
Accompanying the core curriculum, which teaches the knowledge and skills to become a pharmacist, is a co-curriculum called personal and professional development. These activities are designed to support self-awareness and self-directed learning. There are three major components of personal and professional development, including courses that focus on educational outcomes such as leadership and professionalism, participation in co-curricular activities practiced outside of the classroom, such as volunteering at a community health fair, and the career coach program, which pairs each student with a practicing pharmacist to guide them through three cycles of continuing professional development.
“We want the personal and professional development curriculum to help students realize that knowledge plus positive attitudes and behavior patterns lead to successful careers,” said Michelle Farland, Pharm.D., BCPS, C.D.E., a clinical associate professor and director of the personal and professional development curriculum. “We are teaching professional attributes that build a foundation for the future success of our graduates.”
POPULAR ELECTIVES: FROM SWIMMING WITH GATORS TO LIFE AS A DIABETIC

It’s not every day that Pharm.D. students get to swim with gators. But for students in the two-week elective course Advanced Topics in Community Pharmacy Practice, taught by Clinical Assistant Professor Stacey Curtis, Pharm.D., the gator encounters happen yearly.
“Swamp Tank,” an exercise based on ABC-TV’s “Shark Tank,” gives students the chance to propose business plans that alleviate common community pharmacy issues to six (semi) ruthless potential investors known as the Gators. The gators are diverse industry leaders including doctors, pharmacists, lawyers and business executives.
Each presenting group chooses a CEO, CFO and COO, who spend 10 minutes presenting their business plan. Then the Gators have five minutes to grill the non-presenting group members. Offers are made, or not made, and dreams are fulfilled or dashed. At the conclusion of the exercise, the Gators determine the team they believe would yield the best long-term investment to name a single winner of the competition.
Curtis’ elective is one of more than 40 offered to second- and third-year UF pharmacy students at the end of their fall and spring semesters. The two-week, two-credit hour courses offer a change of pace for faculty and students and an opportunity to explore personal interest areas of pharmacy.
Pharmacy student Lisa Deacon, ’19, had her daily routine turned upside down during one of the electives. As a requirement in Clinical Associate Professor Shannon Miller’s, Pharm.D., ambulatory care course, Deacon had to assume the lifestyle of a person with diabetes. Three times a day she swallowed candy medications, injected insulin into an injectable stomach cushion and monitored her glucose. In addition, she maintained diaries for food, blood glucose levels and medications.
“The best phrase I can use to sum up the entire experience would be, ‘It’s easier said than done,’” Deacon wrote in a posting published by the Pulses pharmacy education blog. “By immersing myself in the patient role for a week, I experienced the challenges of adherence to a complicated diabetic regimen, while also trying to maintain daily life activities. I truly had to ‘prioritize’ my health and medications.”
All 43 students in Miller’s elective course admitted to non-adherence, with either taking medications, checking blood glucose or following diet suggestions. In reflection papers at the end of the course, students reported being embarrassed to check glucose in public, forgetting to carry their food diary and difficulty injecting insulin. Miller credits the simulation with teaching students how to express empathy to patients through personal experiences.
PERSPECTIVES FROM THE CLASS OF 2019

When the class of 2019 arrived on campus four years ago, they became “the trailblazers” for their pioneering spirit and willingness to adapt to the new curriculum. The class of 225 students embraced the challenges and partnered with faculty to share valuable feedback with college leadership along the way.
“Going through the experience together helped unite us as a class,” said Darion Bevan, Pharm.D., ’19, a student at the Gainesville campus. “The faculty really adapted their teaching based on student feedback. They were willing to work with us to make the curriculum better.”
Isabella Torres, Pharm.D., ’19, first learned about the new curriculum during her admission interview. She acknowledged there were challenges at first, but over time the curriculum better positioned her to succeed in her pharmacy career. She also appreciated how team-based learning drew her closer to classmates in Jacksonville and her peers in Gainesville and Orlando, who she saw on camera every day.
“My class pioneered and took on some of the curriculum’s growing pains to make sure the classes after us were better positioned to succeed,” Torres said. “The team-based learning component was a welcome addition to the curriculum. It was a joy to go to class every day and know that my teammates were there whether I was having a good day or a bad day.”
ARCHITECT OF THE NEW CURRICULUM RETIRES

Diane Beck, Pharm.D., helped thousands of students master the finer principles of a pharmacy during her four decades in education. In retirement, the roles have reversed, and Beck is the pupil learning from her tennis instructor how to master the forehand at the Jonesville Tennis Center. The architect of the UF College of Pharmacy’s innovative curriculum has found new passions in life since her retirement in February 2019, including playing tennis every day.
Beck devoted her career to improving pharmacy education and the scholarship of teaching. For 25 years, she served as a faculty member at Auburn University’s Harrison School of Pharmacy. She was a leader in Auburn’s post-B.S. and first professional Pharm.D. program and was awarded a professor emeritus title. In 2004, she joined her alma mater, the UF College of Pharmacy, where she led development of the Pharm.D. curriculum. Beck earned the respect of colleagues around the country who benefitted from her keen interest in educational literature and her willingness to share best practices in teaching. In 2005, she was appointed president of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, and she has won numerous teaching and education awards.
“Diane Beck has had transformational impact on the education of Pharm.D. students at the University of Florida, including our entry-level program and Working Professional Pharm.D. program,” said Julie Johnson, Pharm.D., dean and distinguished professor. “She oversaw the development of our new curriculum, which put us well ahead of most colleges in curricular transformation. This will likely impact the education of pharmacy students at UF for several decades. The number of pharmacists who have been, and will be, touched by her contributions is hard to measure.”