Technical Standards for the Pharm.D. Program


Approved by the Faculty, January 15, 2013
Approved by University Counsel, February 1, 2013

The Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy is dedicated to excellence in health care and biomedical education, innovative and visionary research and scholarship in the pharmaceutical sciences, exemplary clinical practice, and outreach community services that address the needs of the citizens of New Jersey and society at large. The school's preeminent Pharm.D. program provides a strong foundation in basic and clinical sciences coupled with an emphasis on patient-centered care. The curriculum includes diverse opportunities and experiences in clinical practice, industry, public health agencies, managed care, and research.

As a program accredited by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education, students must develop broad knowledge, skills, behaviors, and a commitment to ongoing self-directed learning that will enable them to serve as competent, ethical pharmacy practitioners. In addition to the clearly defined academic standards specified in the Pharm.D. Curriculum Document and in the Standards for Academic Progression, the school has identified a set of technical standards that specify the nonacademic attributes, abilities, and skills students must demonstrate for admission, retention, progression, and graduation in the Pharm.D. program. These are briefly described below.

Observation Skills
Observation requires the functional use of visual, auditory, and somatic senses in a variety of areas related to contemporary pharmacy practice. Students must have the ability to observe and evaluate in classroom settings, small group exercises, one-on-one evaluations, patient care settings, and pharmacy practice sites. A student must be able to observe a patient accurately at a distance and close at hand, particularly as related to drug therapy and disease state monitoring.

Communication Skills
Students must be able to communicate with clarity, sensitivity, and accuracy to patients, caregivers, members of health care teams, faculty, and staff. Effective communication is necessary in the areas of reading, writing, speech, and hearing/listening. Computer literacy is also a component of effective communication. Students must be able to communicate appropriately, effectively, and efficiently to people with a variety of educational and cultural backgrounds at their levels of understanding.

Dexterity
Students should possess motor skills necessary to provide pharmaceutical care to patients including the preparation and dispensing of medications (including extemporaneous compounded or sterile intravenous products), administration of immunizations, and performance of patient assessments.

Intellectual, Conceptual, Integrative, and Quantitative Abilities
Students are required to recall, understand, analyze, synthesize, and apply information from textbooks, lectures, current literature and journals, as well as real-world pharmacy practice sites. Necessary abilities include critical thinking and reasoning, problem solving, measurement, mathematical calculation, and ability to monitor drug therapy. Students are required to use these abilities in a timely fashion.

Behavioral and Social Attributes
Students must act ethically with integrity, compassion, concern for others, interpersonal skills, collegiality, appropriate hygiene and appearance, interest, and motivation. Students must fully utilize their intellectual abilities, exercise good judgment, work as effective members of the health care team, and function successfully under emotionally, intellectually, and physically demanding workloads. Students must demonstrate compassion and integrity and a concern for others. This requires responsibility for one's personal actions and emotional stability in stressful situations, with long hours and personal fatigue, dissatisfied patients, and tired colleagues.

Students are expected to maintain the highest ethical standards in their behavior. Students must be of good moral character and are expected to meet the ethical standards set forth by the pharmacy profession. Students must develop professional relationships with patients, patients' families or caregivers, and other health care providers to provide effective pharmaceutical care while maintaining patient confidentiality. Students must pass multiple criminal background checks and random drug screens during the program. They must also have appropriate health certification documentation. Students must adhere to and comply with the Rutgers University Code of Student Conduct: http://studentconduct.rutgers.edu/university-code-of-student-conduct.

Practice and Experiential Education
An integral part of the pharmacy education process is the completion of introductory and advanced pharmacy practice experiences. Within the constraints established by law, in these experiences student-pharmacists are placed in pharmacy practice settings and expected to function at the professional and behavioral level of a licensed pharmacist.

Students are expected to maintain a high standard of professional behavior including: attire, personal demeanor, verbal and written communications, the use of resources/facilities of each site, maintaining patient confidentiality, maintaining the security of pharmacy services, and access to patient records. Students are expected to take responsibility for their own learning and demonstrate a willingness to engage patients, pharmacy personnel, health providers, and others in provision of patient-focused services and care.

Students who do not meet the technical standards may be subject to disciplinary action, including dismissal from the program. Students must be proactive in addressing deficiencies in meeting the standards.

If the inability to meet technical standards is related to a disability, the university provides extensive and supportive resources. Rutgers is committed to providing equal educational access for individuals with disabilities in accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments (ADAA) of 2008. The university will make reasonable modifications to its policies, practices, and procedures unless doing so would fundamentally alter the nature of the service, program, or activity, or pose an undue hardship.

For any student who has been deemed eligible for special services, Rutgers provides reasonable accommodations in order to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to participate in all Rutgers programs, services, and activities.