Shared responsibility for the education of pharmacy students.

Abstract

The pharmacy academic and pharmacy practice communities share responsibility for pharmacy student education in the United States. For example, both communities appoint members to the board of directors of the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), the accrediting body for U.S. doctor of pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree programs. Nonetheless, some elements of the educational process are not shared. Accreditation standards state that individual colleges and schools of pharmacy must have autonomy to manage the professional program and that the Pharm.D. curriculum must be designed, delivered, and monitored by faculty.1 However, the view that the design and oversight of entry-to-practice pharmacy curricula should be restricted to colleges and schools of pharmacy has been challenged in the United Kingdom by the Modernising Pharmacy Careers Professional Board. It recently proposed that entry-to-practice pharmacy education in the United Kingdom should be jointly owned, planned, and delivered by the practice community and universities.2 This commentary provides an overview of the current state of pharmacy education in the United States, reviews contemporary educational methods that could be applied to existing programs, and addresses the possibility of a shared responsibility through which the pharmacy practice community can increase its involvement in the design, delivery, and oversight of such educational programs.