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NEWS SERVICES |
NEWS
| For immediate use |
April 22, 2003 -- No. 243 |
UNC-Chapel Hill, ECSU pharmacy pilot program scheduled to begin in fall 2003
In an effort to address a shortage of pharmacists in North Carolina and expand opportunities for students wishing to pursue pharmacy as a career, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Elizabeth City State University will create a joint pharmacy program, pending final approval by the UNC Board of Governors, officials announced today (April 22).
The joint pharmacy program is scheduled to be fully operational by fall 2004. The program will enter a pilot phase in fall 2003, when several ECSU students are expected to join the 120-student UNC-Chapel Hill pharmacy class.
At the request of the UNC Board of Governors, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research conducted a study on North Carolina’s pharmacist work force. That study, completed in early 2002, found that North Carolina had an imbalance in supply and demand of pharmacists – and that a coordinated approach was needed to address this imbalance. Following a feasibility study mandated by the 2002 General Assembly of a stand-alone school of pharmacy at ECSU, an external panel of nationally recognized pharmacy deans recommended a joint program involving ECSU and UNC-Chapel Hill. Key benefits identified included:
Last summer, UNC Vice President for Academic Affairs Gretchen Bataille appointed a task force from the two campuses to develop plans for such a joint program. The task force was co-chaired by UNC-Chapel Hill School of Pharmacy Dean William Campbell and ECSU Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Carolyn Mahoney and worked in consultation with UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser and ECSU Chancellor Mickey Burnim.
UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Pharmacy, founded in 1897, is the only public school of pharmacy in the state and one of the largest in the nation, graduating about 120 pharmacists a year. A newly completed building, the Banks D. Kerr Hall, will allow the school to increase class size by 20 percent, from 120 to 145. The school has more than 6,000 active alumni, out of which 3,500 are practicing in 98 of the state’s 100 counties.
ECSU currently offers pre-medicine and pre-dentistry concentrations within its biology major and also offers a biotechnology minor. Many ECSU graduates have successfully completed graduate school programs and begun service in various health-related professions, university officials said.
Moeser said the campus welcomed the opportunity to partner with ECSU.
"Elizabeth City State University has experienced a growth in student enrollment, which is testament both to its academic reputation and to the population growth in that area of our state," he said. "The result of our partnership will be a program that will make a positive difference in eastern North Carolina – and in our collective ability to meet a critical need. We hope this program also will serve as a model for other states experiencing a shortage of pharmacists."
Burnim expressed high praise for the partnership between the two universities, as well.
"This joint program in pharmacy provides a wonderful new career option for ECSU students and simultaneously helps to address a critical health-care need. We are very pleased to form this partnership with the School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the premier pharmacy schools in the world," Burnim said.
"The citizens of North Carolina will be well-served, and we are very pleased to be part of this new initiative."
The Sheps Center report also had concluded that pharmacists educated in North Carolina were more likely to work in non-metropolitan and health professional shortage areas.
"We are seeing the greatest imbalances in rural areas of our state, and
those imbalances will only become more pronounced in the coming years,"
said Campbell. "One of the many benefits of this partnership is that we can
begin to address this need very quickly and in a cost-effective manner."
Campbell added the partnership would allow immediate expansion of enrollment,
without having to wait for construction, renovation and recruitment initiatives.
Distance-learning facilities and other buildings on both campuses will be used
for instruction.
As originally proposed, the partnership would feature a pre-professional curriculum during the freshman and sophomore years, providing a grounding in physical, biological, behavioral and social sciences, officials said. Beginning in the junior year, students would complete the first two years of their professional curriculum at UNC-Chapel Hill and could obtain a newly designated bachelor of pharmaceutical sciences degree from ECSU.
The bachelor of science degree would provide students with a marker in their progress toward the doctor of pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree. ECSU students interested in pursuing the doctor of pharmacy degree would receive their coursework from UNC-Chapel Hill at ECSU. Coursework from UNC-Chapel Hill would be transmitted by videoconferencing and other distance-learning technology. The final year would be completed in the N.C. Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) program, with precepted clinical experiences provided by affiliated faculty in the eastern region AHEC. UNC-Chapel Hill would be the degree-granting institution for the Pharm.D.
Upon graduation, ECSU students will have completed all requirements for a Pharm.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill, with about half of the credits earned while at Elizabeth City and the eastern region AHEC.
"This partnership is a model that takes advantage of institutional strengths to meet the state’s needs," said Bataille. "We envision similar collaborations in other academic areas not only in response to state budget constraints, but also because such partnerships result in stronger academic programs for students across the University."
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UNC-Chapel Hill News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu
ECSU University Relations contact: Marsha McLean, (252) 335-3562 or mrmclean@mail.ecsu.edu