About the Pharmacotherapy Scholars Program

Mission

The joint mission of the University of Pittsburgh Pharmacotherapy Scholars Program is to prepare P4 pharmacy students to become highly proficient patient care providers and for a successful transition into competitive post-graduate residency training programs.

Vision

The Pharmacotherapy Scholars Program is an innovative training program that supports the advancement of student professionals as medication experts and patient care advocates.  Students will engage as stakeholders in the medication use process and will be responsible for patient outcomes under the direction of pharmacist mentors.

What is the Pharmacotherapy Scholars Program?

The Pharmacotherapy Scholars Program is a collaboration between the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy and UPMC. PittPharmacy is committed to the education of all students in research and scholarship, patient care, and service to our communities. Assessment and Academic Performance Committees have rigorous standards to ensure that all students meet these expectations. The program focuses on six main learning Objectives:

Program Goals and Objectives

Direct Patient Care

Assume responsibility for providing pharmaceutical care to service patients in collaboration with the preceptor. Prepare for and attend daily multidisciplinary patient care rounds. Provide pharmaceutical care to service patients, and in doing so, be recognized as the source of quality drug information and pharmacotherapeutic recommendations. Establish a patient-centered relationship between the pharmacist and the patient and/or caregiver. Provide relevant medication education to service patients including addressing the importance of adherence, indication, adverse effects, and health maintenance.

Drug Information

Provide accurate, timely, and clear responses to drug information requests from the service. Formulate a search strategy, recover and assess primary and/or secondary literature for its applicability to the patient/question, and deliver a response to the preceptor and subsequently to the requestor. Evaluate the usefulness of biomedical literature gathered about questions related to the care of service patients (e.g., literature review, case conference, etc.).

Medication Therapy Management

Collect accurately the patient’s medications and ascertain the degree to which the patient has been adherent to their regimen. Determine the presence of medication therapy problems in a patient’s current medication regimen. Assess the adequacy of individual patients’ pharmacotherapy daily and formulate patient-centered recommendations related to the rational use of pharmaceuticals which may include, but not be limited to, regimen optimization (addition, modification, or deletion), cost-containment, access to medications, patient understanding and competency, and adherence. Use pharmacokinetic and dynamic principles when formulating the aforementioned recommendations to dose and monitor drug therapy. Re-visit previously formulated recommendations and plans, assess their continued validity, and augment them as needed to achieve patient-centered therapeutic goals.

Communication

Utilize an organizational mechanism that is simple, comfortable to the learner, repeatable, and produces accurate transcription of information. Communication Document patient care activities in accordance with institutional policies and procedures under the direct supervision of the preceptor. Interface with clinical and operational-based pharmacy personnel to ensure accurate and timely care and provision of critical information necessary for patient care.

Provide both a verbal and written sign-out of service patients and responsibilities to the oncoming scholar for the rotation. Deliver education to other pharmacy-based learners, such as clinical pharmacists and other APPE students, and other medicine-based learners, such as nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and physicians. Research Design and implement quality improvement changes to the institution’s medication-use system.

Research

Conduct a practice-related project using effective project management skills. Design, execute, and report results of investigations of pharmacy practice-related issues.

Professional Development

Evaluate roles and responsibilities of successful clinical, research, academic, and post-graduate programs and their preceptors. Prepare self-assessment of readiness for application to post-graduate programs, including patient care, research, teaching, and service acumen.