Reimagining the Future Experience
The experience of the pandemic and the broad array of factors influencing health care delivery have converged to create a sense of urgency for change within the college’s PharmD program. The pandemic has required instructors and learners to adopt new instructional modalities, which is influencing expectations of both students and faculty. Examples of significant shifts in health care highlighting the need for program evolution include the expansion of value-based payment strategies, growth of team-based care, the rise of practitioner burn-out, and emerging professional opportunities for pharmacists in health care. The rate of change experienced over the last several years necessitates that our educational program must evolve significantly and rapidly as well.
Thus, the college has embarked on an effort to “reimagine” the professional program experience. This will not only address the curriculum (ie. what is taught) but also how faculty and students will engage in teaching and learning. While it is too early to describe any definitive plans at this point, we can share some of the priority attributes we expect will guide design. Student-centeredness, program flexibility, connectedness with the college and pharmacy communities, contemporary instructional methods with an emphasis on problem solving skills, and competency-based assessment strategies are elements framing early design activities. As the “reimagining” effort continues, we will be creating opportunities for both internal and external stakeholders to contribute to the design, ensuring that we continue to offer a world-class educational experience at the college.