Published in CenterView August 31, 2009
New building promises to bolster pharmacy research, clinical practice
In many ways, the School of Pharmacy has felt detached from the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Photo by Jay Ferchaud
Lauren Love Compton, pharmacy resident, Travis King, fourth-year
pharmacy student, Leigh Ann Ross, associate dean of the School of
Pharmacy, and Wes Pierce, fourth-year pharmacy student, imagine the
new Pharmacy School building on the UMMC campus.
Its degree program is split between Oxford and Jackson, and most local classes are at the Jackson Medical Mall Thad Cochran Center. Faculty, paid through the University of Mississippi in Oxford, didn't even receive employee numbers here until three years ago.
But the growing school hopes to ease its separation anxiety with the construction of its own building on campus.
Construction of the School of Pharmacy building is scheduled to begin in the fall or early spring. The proposed two-story, 26,000-square-foot 'L'-shaped structure will consolidate a department now scattered over two miles. The school's leadership hopes the new building will increase student interaction with pharmacy faculty and the Medical Center as a whole.
"We are the newest school on campus," said Dr. Leigh Ann Ross, associate dean for clinical affairs in the School of Pharmacy. "And I believe having a designated place will increase our visibility and heighten awareness of our program."
During the school's first 38 years in Jackson, it's developed strong research collaborations with Medical Center colleagues, which complement the research efforts of the school in Oxford. The School of Pharmacy is listed regularly in the top five in research funding by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.
In education, the school has implemented an innovative, problem-based learning curriculum that has been replicated by other schools (most recently by Auburn). Faculty also have been very involved in patient care and, in collaboration with the Medical Center, have established pharmacist-run clinics that received a Best Practice Award in 2003 from the American Society of Health System Pharmacists for innovations in a model pharmacy practice program.
Pharmacy students' pass rates on the national licensure exam exceeded 98 percent over the past seven years and have been 100 percent in four of the past seven.
"This new building will truly take our clinical teaching and research programs to the next level of accomplishment," said Dr. Barbara G. Wells, Pharmacy dean.
Dr. Barbara G. Wells,
Pharmacy Dean
Plans for the new building include 17 classrooms, offices and laboratory and clinical research space. An attached 160-seat auditorium will be equipped to allow lecturers to share live video with the Oxford campus.
The building costs about $9 million. The School of Pharmacy has some federal funding secured, as well as a commitment from the University of Mississippi. A capital campaign, called Promises to Keep, is under way to raise more funds.
The push for the new building came after the most recent assessment from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, the school's accrediting body. The ACPE cited serious concerns about the physical facilities on campus. Specifically, it encouraged the school to narrow the gap between the School of Pharmacy facilities — most at the Jackson Medical Mall — and the rest of the Medical Center.
The ACPE's concerns mirrored those of School of Pharmacy leadership. Administrators had realized pharmacy students were becoming increasingly isolated from the rest of the campus.
Pharmacy students split the seven-year program between Oxford and Jackson. In Oxford, they spend three years in pre-pharmacy and two in pharmacy school. Then they come to Jackson for a year of study followed by a year of advanced practice experience at an institution in the Mid-South.
Most pharmacy courses moved to the Jackson Medical Mall in 1998 when the school began offering a full Doctor of Pharmacy, or Pharm.D., which required students to spend more time in Jackson.
Artist's rendering of the School of Pharmacy building.
"There are many wonderful aspects to the Jackson Medical Mall, including the patient-care activities," Ross said. "Our students participate on these activites during their clinical practice experiences, but for their classroom-based educational activities, it is vitally important that they become more a part of the UMMC student body on the main campus."
Pharmacy student Wes Pierce had a typical experience: He came to Jackson from Oxford not knowing many people. Now in his fourth year of the Pharm.D. program, he says he still doesn't know the Medical Center campus very well.
"We're considered students of UMMC while we're here, but we don't really feel like we're part of UMMC," he said. "Having a building on campus will get us better integrated into the UMMC community, help us feel more a part of the student body and then get us more involved in UMMC-related student affairs."
Recently, the school made headway on the integration issue. Pharm.D. students now attend student orientation. They also now have representation in the incorporated student body. They weren't a part of either before.
The school aims to increase annual Jackson enrollment from about 90 to more than 100 students, which the new building would amply accommodate.
"The new building symbolizes growth," said Lauren Love Compton, a pharmacy resident. "I think that having that permanent presence will create a center of learning excellence here."