PharmD - Doctor of Pharmacy

PharmD | Doctor of Pharmacy

With an emphasis on interprofessional education,

our graduates will be ready to be active members of the healthcare team.

AUHS › PROGRAMS › Academics › School of Pharmacy › Doctor of Pharmacy

PharmD Program Points of Distinction

Keeping in line with the vision of the University, our graduates will be educated in a Christian-based environment and trained to be practice-ready in providing a number of primary care services.

Innovative, affordable year-round curriculum leading to completion of the PharmD degree in three years instead of four years, enabling AUSH students to enter the job market or post-doctoral residency one year earlier.

A curriculum that blends arts and leadership with science and practice to foster leadership and practice readiness for 21st century healthcare.

The only program of its kind that includes Medical Illustration in the curriculum.

A small class size of 60 with a high teacher to student ratio.

With an emphasis on interprofessional education, our graduates will be ready to be active members of the healthcare team.

Curriculum Overview
Experiential Education

The AUHS School of Pharmacy offers a three-year accelerated Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program in a highly student-focused learning environment. The PharmD curriculum is designed to instill students with strong Christian values, to prepare them to practice evidence-based patient care, to foster the culture of research and scholarship, and to enable them to meet the healthcare needs of diverse patient populations. The curriculum fulfills recommendations provided by accreditation standards and professional guidelines including the ACPE Standards 2016, JCPP Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process, CAPE Educational Outcomes 2013, and licensure examination content outlines.

The three-year curriculum consists of the equivalent of 12 quarters (four quarters per year). Each quarter is 11-weeks (consisting of 10 weeks of instruction and one week of final assessments) and is followed by a recess before the next quarter begins. The minimum credit hours required for program completion is 183. The curriculum is a combination of required and elective didactic and experiential courses.

The first-year didactic curriculum consists of foundational biomedical and pharmaceutical science courses (e.g., biochemistry, immunology, medicinal chemistry, microbiology, pathophysiology, pharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics, pharmacology), introductory clinical courses (e.g., patient care process, physical assessment, self-care), and fundamental courses in social and administrative science (e.g., biostatistics, communications, ethics, healthcare systems, health informatics, Judeo-Christian values in healthcare, medical illustration).

A substantive portion of the second-year didactic curriculum consists of the Integrated Pharmacotherapy course series. “Integrated” refers to the combination of basic sciences and clinical sciences and other topics. Instead of using separate courses to teach various topics in isolation, the Integrated Pharmacotherapy courses uses a model in which topics, such as medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmacotherapy are taught together within the context of disease states. This integration makes learning more relevant, encourages critical thinking, enables the development of more robust mental models, fosters longer term retention of material, and makes it easier to transfer learning to real-life patient care situations.

Along with classroom-based courses, students complete four Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (IPPE) rotations during first- and second-year of the program. In the final year, students complete 36 weeks of Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs). The APPEs are comprised of a sequence of six rotations with each rotation being six weeks.

Experiential education provides students with an early opportunity to begin applying successively acquired pharmaceutical science and pharmacy practice knowledge in actual clinical and professional settings.

The Experiential Education courses are comprised of:

Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPE)

These courses are taken during the first two years of the program (IPPE – 8 units).

Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPE)

These courses are taken during the third and final year of the program (APPE – 36 units). At the AUHS SOP, students complete a total of six advanced pharmacy practice experiences.

The six experiential clerkships are:

Hospital/Institutional Pharmacy Practice
Community Pharmacy Practice
Acute Care/Internal Medicine Pharmacy Practice
Ambulatory Care Pharmacy Practice
Two electives

Elective rotations may include, but are limited to health and practice areas such as Academic Pharmacy, Ambulatory Care, Cardiology, Clinical Research, Critical Care, Diabetes Care, Emergency Medicine, Health Technology Assessment, Geriatrics, Healthcare Informatics, Home Health Care, Infectious Disease, Legislative Advocacy, Long-term Care, Managed Care, Medical Communications, Medication Therapy Management, Nephrology, Neurology, Nuclear Pharmacy, Oncology, Organizational Pharmacy, Outcomes Research, Pain Management, Palliative Care, Pediatrics, Pharmaceutical Compounding, Pharmaceutical Industry, Pharmacy Management, Public Health, Psychiatric Care, Specialty Pharmacy Practice, Veterinary pharmacy.

During experiential clerkships, students are expected to participate in the delivery of interprofessional, patient-centered, team-based care (including working with physicians and their students), with the goal of being able to practice as competent, compassionate, problem-solving, and team-oriented pharmacists.

Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education

“The American University of Health Sciences School of Pharmacy’s Doctor of Pharmacy program has been given the status of Accredited with Probation by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, 190 South LaSalle Street, Suite 3000, Chicago, IL 60603, 312/664-3575; FAX, 866/228-2631, web site www.acpe-accredit.org, for compliance issues with the following standards: Standard No. 1: Foundational Knowledge and Standard No. 24: Assessment Elements for Section I: Educational Outcomes. For an explanation of the program’s Accredited with Probation status, consult the Office of the Dean or ACPE.”

1. Christian-Based Curriculum

Keeping in line with the vision of the University, our graduates will be educated in a Christian-based environment and trained to be practice-ready in providing a number of primary care services.

2. Innovative Course Content

Innovative, affordable year-round curriculum leading to completion of the PharmD degree in three years instead of four years, enabling AUHS students to enter the job market or post-doctoral residency one year earlier.

3. Preparing Leaders

A curriculum that blends arts and leadership with science and practice to foster leadership and practice readiness for 21st century healthcare.

4. Medical Illustration

The only program of its kind that includes Medical Illustration in the curriculum.

5. Personal Attention

A small class size of 60 with a high teacher to student ratio.

6. Interprofessional Education

With an emphasis on interprofessional education, our graduates will be ready to be active members of the healthcare team.

Doctor of Pharmacy Program Disclosure Information

The AUHS, School of Pharmacy is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE). The accreditation term granted for the Doctor of Pharmacy program extends through June 30, 2024, which is the customary two-year term for a new program receiving Accredited status. As part of the ACPE policies and procedures (8.4 Policy on Program Disclosure of Specific Information), an ACPE-accredited program is required to post on its website the following information: On-time graduation rate for the most recent graduating class in the single degree pathway (i.e., the percentage of a class cohort completing the curriculum in the specified timeframe (3 years):