Doctor of Pharmacy

Admission Requirements 

The College of Pharmacy admits students for the Fall semester only. Deadline for application is January 5th of each year.

At The University of New Mexico, all freshman students are admitted to University College. A detailed statement of admission requirements to University College is in the Admission section of this catalog.

To be considered for admission to the College of Pharmacy Pharm.D. Program, an applicant must have:

1) Successfully completed all pre-pharmacy courses* with grades of C or higher consisting of 91 credit hours, including:
 
* Prerequisite courses are subject to change.

*Only 21 credit hours of nonprofessional electives are required if an appropriate Biochemistry course is taken.

2) A minimum cumulative grade point average of at least 2.5 on all completed, required pre-pharmacy courses listed in the previous section taken at all colleges and universities. A competitive GPA for admission for the Pharm.D. program starts at 2.7. The required grade point average does not include electives, but does include each grade received on any required pre-pharmacy course (including selectives).
 
3) At least a 2.0 GPA on all course work attempted at The University of New Mexico.
 
4) All science pre-pharmacy courses (biology, chemistry, physics) must be completed by the end of the Spring semester prior to matriculation into pharmacy school.
 
5) A completed and submitted PharmCAS application including:

• Online application.
• Official transcripts from all U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities attended (including courses in progress).
• Foreign transcript evaluation (if applicable).
• Three letters of recommendation from faculty or health professionals.
• Application fee.

6) Completed the Pharmacy College Admissions Test (PCAT) by January of the year applying.
 
7) A College of Pharmacy supplemental application packages, including:

• Supplemental application form (available for download from the College of Pharmacy Web site).
• A recent passport size photograph.
• A $50.00 non-refundable application fee (check or money order) payable to The University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy.

8) All biology and chemistry prerequisites must have been completed within the last 7 years.
 
9) Participated in an invited interview. Selected applicants are offered interviews to take place at the College of Pharmacy. You must participate in the invited interview to be considered for admittance to the College of Pharmacy.

10) All accepted students must submit to the College of Pharmacy: 

• An undergraduate application for admission to The University of New Mexico.
• Official transcripts from all other colleges and universities attended.
• A $20.00 non-refundable application fee payable to The University of New Mexico.
• Experiential Education Requirement Form.
• A background check authorization form.

11) All accepted students are expected to complete a background check as part of their offer of admission. Details on the background check requirements are disseminated once accepted.

If you are offered admission to the program, a deposit is required to hold your position in the class. The deposit is applied to your expenses following matriculation into the College of Pharmacy.

To receive an application packet or for additional information on admission requirements and procedures, students should contact:

Office of Student Services
College of Pharmacy
MSC09 5360
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131-0001
(505) 272-3241
http://hsc.unm.edu/pharmacy/future.shtml

Graduation Requirements

The University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy awards the Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.), Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees upon completion of all specified requirements.

For an outline of graduate degree requirements, refer to the graduate program guide.

Pharm.D. Graduation Requirements:

1. Satisfactory completion of all required and elective Pharmacy courses.
2. Satisfactory completion of 227 credit hours of course work.
3. Maintain a 2.0 GPA on all University of New Mexico course work and a 2.0 GPA on all courses in the professional curriculum.
4. Removal of any “F” or “NCR” grade earned in a course by repeating the course with at least a “C-” or “CR” grade. No student may graduate with an “F” or “NCR” grade in the professional curriculum.
5. Students who have more than two grades of less than “C-” or more than 6 credit hours of grades less than “C-” in required courses in the professional curriculum are not eligible to graduate from the program.

Doctor of Pharmacy Competencies

Develop Plans for Patient Care

1. Integrate and utilize knowledge of biochemistry, physiology, pathophysiology, and anatomy in order to design a pharmaceutical care plan.  Acquire, comprehend, synthesize, apply, and evaluate information about the chemical structure and pharmacology of therapeutic agents in order to design, implement, monitor, evaluate, and adjust pharmaceutical care plans that are patient specific and evidence based.
2. Taking into consideration differences in patients’ biochemistry, anatomy, physiology, and pathophysiologic states and, based on the differences in chemical and pharmacological properties between drugs, recommend changes in pharmacotherapeutic regimens that minimize drug interactions, reduce adverse drug events, increase adherence, and improve therapeutic outcomes.
3. Formulate a patient-centered pharmaceutical care plan (new or revised) in collaboration with healthcare professionals and patients or their caregivers.
4. Design or modify dosage regimens using patient-specific or population pharmacokinetic data, plasma concentration-time profiles of drugs, and factors that alter them. 
5. Explain how pharmacogenomics can be utilized to individualize dosage regimens and to anticipate adverse drug events.
6. Identify and explain the physical, chemical, and formulation properties of a drug that influence its ADME, stability, and dosage form design.
7. Identify and explain dosage form features that influence therapeutic outcomes.
8. Make appropriate selection decisions for multisource drug products.
9. Compound and dispense safe and effective extemporaneous pharmaceutical products prescribed or recommended as part of a patient’s care plan.
10. Prepare and dispense safe and effective sterile dosage forms and enteral nutrition products prescribed or recommended as part of a patient’s care plan.
11. Apply social/behavioral principles and theories in the design, delivery, and evaluation of pharmaceutical care.
12. Apply relevant legal, ethical, social, economic, and professional principles to assure efficient, cost-effective utilization of human, physical, medical, informational, and technological resources in the provision of patient care.
13. State the trade and generic names, mechanisms of action, warnings, adverse effects, contraindications, drug interactions, dosage forms, and dosing regimens of the top 200 drug products and representatives from other major therapeutic drug classes. New Mexico Specific
14. Conduct complete patient physical assessment and review of systems  New Mexico Specific
15. Qualify for any prescriptive authority certification currently granted by the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy. New Mexico Specific

Develop Programs for Public Health 

16. Develop population-specific, evidence-based, and effective disease prevention and management programs.
17. Develop and implement population-specific and evidence-based disease management programs and protocols based upon analysis of epidemiologic and pharmacoeconomic data, medication use criteria, medication use review, and risk reduction strategies.
18. Apply patient- and population-specific data, quality assurance strategies, and research processes to: assure that medication use systems minimize drug misadventuring, optimize patient outcomes, develop drug use and public health policy, design pharmacy benefits, and resolve public health problems.

Communication

19. Use appropriate scientific terminology to convey anatomical, pathophysiologic, physiologic, chemical, pharmacological, and therapeutic concepts.
20. Communicate and collaborate with patients, caregivers, prescribers, population members, other healthcare providers, and administrative and support personnel to engender a team approach to patient care and to assure efficient, cost-effective utilization of human, physical, medical, informational, and technological resource in the provision of pharmaceutical care as well as to identify and resolve medication use problems.
21. Develop strategic efforts to communicate and collaborate with policy makers, members of the community, and other healthcare providers and administrative and supportive personnel to identify, promote, and resolve public health problems as well as to develop public healthcare policy.

Informatics and Systems Management

22. Evaluate the biomedical literature with regard to the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs.
23. Demonstrate appropriate utilization of management principles and use of healthcare resources in the American healthcare system.
24. Manage pharmacy operations and personnel.
25. Optimize physical and technological resources required to fulfill the practice mission.
26. Manage medication distribution, control, and use systems.
27. Retrieve, analyze, and interpret the professional and lay literature to provide drug information to patients, their families, as well as other healthcare providers and the public.

Legal, Ethical, Social, Economic and Professional

28. Carry out professional duties in accordance with legal, ethical, social, and economic guidelines.

Professional Competence

29. Maintain professional competence by identifying and analyzing emerging issues, products, and services that might:
    • affect the efficacy or quality of disease prevention services.
    • impact the management of human, physical, medical, informational, and technological resources in the provision of pharmaceutical care.
    • impact patient-specific and population-based therapeutic outcomes.
30. Maintain professional competence in providing pharmaceutical care by becoming an independent, lifelong learner.

Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) Curriculum

The Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) Program is a four-year professional curriculum. Pre-pharmacy courses may be completed at The University of New Mexico or at any two- or four-year college. Equivalent courses taken at these schools transfer as part of the pre-pharmacy program. Verify equivalencies with The University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy advisement office.

NOTE: Students must be admitted to the pharmacy program to enroll in pharmacy courses.

The courses listed below are The University of New Mexico course numbers. Any course taken at other colleges and universities are accepted according to The University of New Mexico equivalency standards and transfer credit is given by the College of Pharmacy as equivalent to the corresponding University of New Mexico course work.

Footnotes:

⁽¹⁾ MATH 162 fulfills requirements for 180.
⁽²⁾ PHYC 160 fulfills requirements for 151.
⁽³⁾ PHYC 161 fulfills requirements for 152
⁽⁴⁾ STAT 245 or PSY 200 fulfills requirements for STAT 145.
⁽⁵⁾ BIOL 351 and 352L fulfills requirements for BIOL 239L.

General elective courses to be taken from the following categories:

1. Communication: advanced English writing, technical or professional writing, linguistics or journalism.
2. Humanities: literature (including American, English, foreign and comparative literature), history or philosophy.
3. Social/behavioral sciences: anthropology, psychology, economics, geography, political science or sociology.
4. Foreign languages.
5. Fine arts: the history, appreciation, and criticism of art, music, theater or dance.
6. Health promotion: first aid, nutrition, and health.
7. Physical education courses and courses numbered 001 through 100 are not acceptable.

Selective A from a list of courses that emphasize the development of communication skills: Students with a previous Bachelor-level degree (or higher) are only required to have one communications selective course

1. Public speaking (CJ 130)
2. Interpersonal communication (CJ 221)
3. Small group communication (CJ 225)
4. Business and professional speaking (CJ 332)
5. Professional communication (CJ 333)
6. Health Communications (CJ 450)

Selective B from a list of courses that emphasize critical thinking and problem-solving:

1. Physical chemistry (CHEM 311 or 315)
2. Expository writing (ENGL 220)
3. A survey of mathematics (MATH 129)
4. Calculus II (MATH 181)
5. Trigonometry (MATH 123)
6. Introduction to philosophical problems (PHIL 101)
7. Current moral problems (PHIL 102)
8. Reasoning and critical thinking (PHIL 156)
9. Professional ethics (PHIL 245)
10. Analytical Chemistry (CHEM 352)
11. Quantitative Analysis (CHEM 253L)
12. Histology (BIOL 416L)
13. Molecular Cell Biology (BIOL 429)
14. Biology of Toxins (BIOL 445/545)
15. Immunology (BIOL 456/556)
16. Microbial Physiology (BIOL 460)
17. Immunogenetics (BIOL 466/566)
18. Parasitology (BIOL 482L/582L)
19. Biology of Infectious Organisms (BIOL 490)

6 credits of professional electives are required for the Doctor of Pharmacy Program.

Dual Degree

Pharm.D./M.B.A.

The College of Pharmacy and the Anderson School of Management offer a dual degree program leading to the Doctor of Pharmacy and Master of Business Administration. The dual degree program is designed to prepare students for leadership positions that demand knowledge of both health sciences and management concepts. The goal is to provide graduates with skills, knowledge, and experience needed for management positions in the pharmaceutical industry, with health care organizations, or retail/independent pharmacies. Under this program, the College of Pharmacy accepts 6 credit hours of M.B.A. core courses as professional electives and the Anderson Graduate School of Management accepts 6 credit hours (PHRM 707 and 760) of credit in the College of Pharmacy toward the 18 credit hours of elective credit in the M.B.A. program. Students pursuing this program must satisfy the admission and other academic requirements of both schools. Those planning to enter the dual program should consult with the admission officers of both schools as early as possible. Students that do not have a Bachelor's degree must meet the admission requirements of Anderson's "Three-Two" program.