The didactic curriculum is composed of 35 credit hours. Students fulfill the credit hours through five foundation courses and six advanced disease statement management courses.
Students can download specific course descriptions and prerequisites and may read below for a summary of the didactic courses.
Foundation Courses: Five foundation courses support the Advanced Disease State Management courses and develop skills that are important to the effective functioning of clinical pharmacy practitioners:
- Clinical Skills Foundations - 2 credits
- Immunology - 3 credits
- Evidence-Based Pharmacy Practice - 3 credits
- Advanced Drug Literature Evaluation and Clinical Applications - 1.5 credits
- Instructional Methods, with Seminars in Pharmaceutical Care - 2 credits
Advanced Disease State Management (ADSM): Six ADSM courses form the core of the didactic curriculum; the courses are 3.5 or 4 credit hours each. Each course addresses the pathophysiology, advanced pharmacotherapeutics, pharmacokinetics and professional skills development for two to three body systems.
For example, one course contains cardiovascular and renal modules. As an illustration, the programmed learning experiences within the cardiovascular section include:
- The pathophysiology of common cardiovascular disorders such as hypertension, myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure and dysrhythmias;
- Pharmacotherapeutic management of patients with these disorders, including design of patient-specific individualized drug therapy treatment plans;
- Pharmacokinetics of drugs used to treat cardiovascular disorders;
- Basic cardiovascular physical assessment skills such as blood pressure monitoring;
- Problem-based case discussions of patients with cardiovascular disorders;
- Other appropriate clinical skills development activities.
Time Expectations: Each didactic course is delivered in a format which will require about one to two hours of “class time” per credit hour each week, plus one to two hours of completing assessments. Additional study time is student-specific.
The final 30 credit hours are completed through the experiential training component of the curriculum.
Didactic Student Advising Session: Students will contact the NTPD office upon admission into the NTPD program to schedule a didactic student advising session. During this session, the student will receive an individualized plan regarding the scheduling and completion of didactic coursework. Any student can request a didactic advising session at anytime during the semester. Students experiencing academic difficulty are encouraged to schedule an advising session as soon as possible.