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. In the 2017-18 academic year, faculty secured more than $19 million in research funding, cementing UF as one of the top 10 National Institutes of Health-funded pharmacy colleges.

Pharmacy education in Jacksonville

Educating future pharmacists is the heart of our mission, and in August 2018, the college welcomed 275 students into the professional Pharm.D. program. Among those were 49 students 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.

Students on the Jacksonville campus are provided the opportunity to learn in interprofessional teams within the UF Center for Simulation Education and Safety Research, or CSESaR. The center is a 24,000-square-foot facility, which includes disaster simulation areas, operating rooms, emergency medicine bays and state-of-the-art conference and instructional spaces. Students will work collaboratively with the College of Medicine and College of Nursing this year to complete medication-safety simulations and training to help them identify and make referrals for individuals with opioid-use disorders.

FSHP Student Chapter of the Year

Student organizations enrich the educational training for our Jacksonville pharmacy students. The campus has representation from more than 10 student organizations, including the Florida Society of Health-System Pharmacists, or FSHP.

With more than 130 student members, the Jacksonville FSHP chapter engages in rewarding events that improve medication therapy in their community. Among the highlights were members teaming with the Florida/USVI Poison Information Center in Jacksonville for educational activities during National Poison Prevention Week and starting a new patient care project with local health system pharmacists to provide medication reviews to more than 75 patients in the Jacksonville area.

For its work, the Jacksonville chapter received FSHP’s 2018 Student Chapter of the Year award.

The UF College of Pharmacy prides itself on preparing graduates to be leaders in health care. In fact, UF has ranked No. 1 in the nation for three consecutive years in the number of graduates 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 more than 12,500 pharmacy alumni who live across all 50 states and in more than 40 countries.