The students in the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions now have a new laboratory to work in. One of the many new renovations to the University over the summer, the new Rite Aid Community Pharmacy Laboratory provides the students with a new state-of-the-art learning space.
Just a little more than a year ago, the program received a new study lounge, with money donated by CVS/Pharmacy to construct the space. A great improvement over the previously existing lounge, the CVS lounge added a modern feel to the building and the work space. However, the nationally recognized pharmacy program’s work space in St. Albert Hall was badly in need of revamping.
“The science labs were approved a year and a half ago and that was in recognition of the strength of the pharmacy, chemistry, biology, general science programs that we have,” said James Pellow, executive vice president and chief operating officer. “So we’re about 40 percent into a $20 million science master plan.
At the end of the day it virtually will have been reset as a modern series of classrooms with both teaching labs and research labs and faculty. That’s an exciting project that continues to go well.”
The new labs, formally known as the Rite Aid Community Pharmacy Laboratory, will help the programs in St. Albert Hall continue along this path. Funded with monies from the Rite Aid Corporation, as well as Congressional appropriations, the new labs provide much-need work space to the students.
Designed to emulate a traditional working pharmacy, the 16 work stations allow students to practice all of the different jobs that go along with being a pharmacist. From filling prescriptions to answering patients’ questions, students will have the opportunity to learn all aspects of their chosen career.
In addition to the laboratory, there are three counseling rooms equipped with video recording devices. Students can use these rooms to perform mock counseling sessions with faculty and then review the footage for self assessment.
The new labs will help provide students with the education, training and support they need to meet the present and future demands professionals encounter as pharmacists, physician assistants, medical technologists, toxicologists and pathologist assistants. The college includes 2,283 undergraduate and graduate students, including 1,571 students enrolled in the six-year Pharm.D. program.
With these recent improvements to the labs and, subsequently, the program, the students are being pushed further ahead on the road to success.
