Org. age Ohio . 711 - The Ohio State University

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Non-Traditional Doctor of Pharmacy Program:
Our Non-traditional Doctor of Pharmacy Program (NTPD) provides licensed pharmacists at the
baccalaureate level the opportunity to enhance their skills and credentials to provide high quality patientoriented
pharmaceutical care by obtaining the PharmD degree. The program is an on-line professional doctoral
degree program which requires and supplements a five-year Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy. Applicants
to the program must hold a B.S. in Pharmacy degree from an Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education
(ACPE) accredited institution, be a resident of Ohio or contiguous states, and be a licensed pharmacist. The
general capabilities of the PharmD graduate include patient physical assessment relative to attainment of
pharmacotherapeutic endpoints, assessment of drug response, clinical evaluation of a broad range of adverse
drug reactions, general therapeutic consultative services to physicians, and pharmacokinetic and toxicological
interpretations of drug concentrations in blood and tissues.
The first NTPD class entered in January 2001 and the final class will do so in January 2007. The faculty of
the College voted recently to end the NTPD program based on a number of factors, but most importantly, that
we have accomplished the intended mission of the program. By the end of the 2005-06 academic year 54
Doctor of Pharmacy degrees will have been earned by students in the NTPD program. At that point we will
have 113 active students remaining in the program.
The NTPD program was designed primarily to meet the professional needs of our B.S. in Pharmacy alumni
to enhance their education and clinical skills to the doctoral level. Indeed, pharmacists from ambulatory,
hospital, and long-term care practice settings; and industry, responded to the opportunity. We are very proud of
our unique and innovative program and especially of our students who have made major commitments of time
and energy. Given the six-year time limit to complete the program, the NTPD Class of 2007 will run until
December 2012. Hence we will fully support the program to the highest
degree until the last student graduates. The
comprehensiveness and excellence of our NTPD
Program will not be compromised in any way as
it is phased out. In addition, the Office of
Professional Experience Programs will
continue to provide their outstanding
services in arranging and monitoring
experiential rotations.
We are also proud of the fact that
this program was the first degreegranting,
distance education program
at Ohio State. The distance education
technology we developed and tested, the
unique needs of non-traditional students
we have dealt with, and the multitude of
other experiences we have had should assist the
University in future endeavors in on-line education.
Figure 5: Distribution of our Non-Traditional PharmD
students in their professional settings.