University Of Southern Nevada
COLLEGE OF PHARMACY
A Message from the Dean
Welcome to the University of Southern Nevada College of Pharmacy! The USN College of Pharmacy is an exceptional place to begin your pharmacy career. We offer a unique three-year curriculum that, while accelerated according to the calendar time, actually provides you with more classroom hours to achieve competence.
Our Doctor of Pharmacy Program, which has been accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education since January, 2004, is structured so that the classroom or didactic component of the curriculum can be completed in two calendar years. Our didactic curriculum follows a block model, where students focus on one content area at a time, classroom learning occurs from 8am to 3pm daily with an hour for lunch, and traditional lecturing is strongly supported by active learning. The merits of the USN system are many, including the ability to really learn subject matter in depth without distraction from several other classes, the ability to support students’ different learning styles through the varied activities that take place during the six-hour classroom day, and the ability for students to perform at higher levels.
Additionally, our program is committed to the importance of early experiential learning that is integrated with didactic coursework. Consequently, upon entering the USN College of Pharmacy, you will be placed in a pharmacy with a pharmacist preceptor, who will help you gain the professional knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors, needed to become a successful pharmacist. Additionally, you will be given the opportunity to relate the concepts presented in the classroom to the realities of contemporary pharmacy practice. All of the pharmacy practice experiences and didactic learning that take place during the first two years of the curriculum culminate in the final year’s advance pharmacy practice experiences. In these experiences, you will be placed with clinical pharmacy specialists and be able to increase your patient care responsibilities as you ready yourself to enter your pharmacy practice.
As our mission states, our curriculum is designed to prepare students to become competent, caring, ethical pharmacists, who are leaders within the profession and are dedicated to the provision of patient-centered care. Upon graduation, you will be ready to enter practice in your chosen area, whether that is community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, one of the various specialty pharmacy practices, or to continue your pharmacy education by pursing post-graduate opportunities.
On behalf of the administration, faculty, students, and staff, I am excited and honored that you are considering the University of Southern Nevada as your first step towards a rewarding career as a pharmacist. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or require additional assistance.
Sincerely,
Renee Coffman, PhD, RPh
Dean
University of Southern Nevada College of Pharmacy