Educational Affairs

A check-in on pharmacy education on the Jacksonville campus

By: Carol Motycka, Pharm.D., BCACP

College of Pharmacy

Ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 1 pharmacy college in Florida and in the top 10 nationally, the University of Florida College of Pharmacy has been developing future leaders in pharmacy practice and science for nearly a century.

With campuses in Gainesville, Jacksonville and Orlando, award-winning faculty aim to improve the health of Floridians and people across the world through pharmacy education, high-impact research and clinical innovation. As one of the top 10 National Institutes of Health-funded pharmacy colleges, the UF College of Pharmacy features preeminent researchers who are leading major medical breakthroughs in areas such as drug discovery and development, pharmacometrics and systems pharmacology, and precision medicine.

Pharmacy education in Jacksonville

Pharmacy students convene inside the DuBow Family Foundation interactive classroom.

Pharmacy education is at the heart of our mission, and in 2017, we welcomed 271 students into our professional Pharm.D. program. Among those were 51 future pharmacists who enrolled at the Jacksonville campus. Students in Jacksonville enjoy small class sizes that allow them to build quality relationships with professors and classmates, as well as take advantage of leadership opportunities. The state-of-the-art DuBow Family Foundation interactive classroom in Jacksonville connects pharmacy students with their professors and peers via videoconferencing. This allows faculty based in Gainesville, Jacksonville and Orlando to simultaneously deliver instruction across all the campuses.

Interprofessional opportunities continue to evolve on the Jacksonville campus. This past year, students worked collaboratively with the colleges of Medicine and Nursing in the Center for Simulation Education and Safety Research to complete TeamSTEPPS training, followed by medication safety scenarios run by faculty from all three colleges over the course of three half days.

Putting Families First

The college is gearing up this fall for the Putting Families First program, which includes students from the colleges of Pharmacy and Nursing, along with faculty from all three colleges. In this program, students work with a family in the community to complete a health improvement project while simultaneously learning about the family’s environment and how health may be ultimately impacted.

The UF College of Pharmacy prides itself on preparing graduates to be leaders in health care. In fact, UF ranked No. 1 in the nation in 2017 in the number of graduates (133) who matched into highly competitive American Society of Health-System Pharmacists residency programs. Whether a UF graduate seeks to work in a hospital, community pharmacy or in one of the many other areas of the pharmacy profession, they are forever connected to The Gator Nation and the 12,000 pharmacy alumni who live across all 50 states and in 41 countries.