American University of Health Sciences

The AUHS Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum has been designed around the School of Pharmacy’s mission to instill students with strong Christian values, to prepare them to practice evidence-based patient care, to educate them in pharmacy research and scholarship, and to enable them to meet the health care needs of diverse patient populations.
AUHS School of Pharmacy offers a three (3) calendar-year entry-level Doctor of Pharmacy program that supports the School’s mission and prepares graduates to meet educational outcomes in preparation to render excellence in pharmacist provider patient-centered care. With this in mind, the curriculum fulfills recommendations provided by accreditation standards and professional guidelines including the ACPE Standards 2016, JCPP Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process, CAPE Educational Outcomes 2013, IPEC Core Competencies 2016 Update, and licensure examination content outlines. Graduates of the program are eligible to take the North American PharmacistLicensure Examination® (NAPLEX) to become a registered pharmacist (RPh).
The three-year curriculum consists of the equivalent of 12 quarters (four quarters per year). The first, second, and third years of our professional doctoral program are referred to as P1, P2, and P3, respectively. Each quarter is 11-weeks and is followed by a recess before the next quarter begins. The minimum credit hours required for program completion is 183.
The P1 didactic curriculum consists of foundational biomedical and pharmaceutical science courses (e.g., biochemistry, immunology, medicinal chemistry, microbiology, pathophysiology, pharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics, pharmacology), introductory clinical courses (e.g., patient care process, physical assessment, self-care), and fundamental courses in social and administrative science (e.g., biostatistics, communications, data analytics, ethics, health care systems, health informatics, Judeo-Christian values in health care, medical illustration).
A substantive portion of the P2 didactic curriculum consists of the Integrated Pharmacotherapy course series. “Integrated” refers to the combination of basic sciences and clinical sciences and other topics. Instead of using separate courses to teach various topics in isolation, the Integrated Pharmacotherapy courses uses a model in which topics, such as medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmacotherapy are taught together within the context of disease states. This integration makes learning more relevant, encourages critical thinking, enables the development of more robust mental models, fosters longer term retention of material, and makes it easier to transfer learning to diverse patient care settings.
In the final year, students will complete 36 weeks of Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs). The APPEs are comprised of a sequence of six clerkships with each clerkship being six weeks.
Experiential Education
Experiential education provides students with an early opportunity to begin applying successively acquired pharmaceutical science and pharmacy practice knowledge in actual clinical and professional settings.
The Experiential Education courses are comprised of:
Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPE). These courses are taken during the first two years of the program (IPPE – 8 units).
Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPE). These courses are taken during the third and final year of the program (APPE – 36 units). At the AUHS SOP, students will complete a total of six advanced pharmacy practice experiences. The six experiential clerkships are:
Hospital/Institutional Pharmacy Practice
Community Pharmacy Practice
Acute Care/Internal Medicine Pharmacy Practice
Ambulatory Care Pharmacy Practice
Two electives
Elective rotations may include, but are limited to health and practice areas such as Academic Pharmacy, Ambulatory Care, Cardiology, Basic Science Research, Clinical Research, Critical Care, Diabetes Care, Emergency Medicine, Health Technology Assessment, Geriatrics, Healthcare Informatics, Home Health Care, Infectious Disease, Legislative Advocacy, Long-term Care, Managed Care, Medical Communications, Medication Therapy Management, Nephrology, Neurology, Nuclear Pharmacy, Oncology, Organizational Pharmacy, Outcomes Research, Pain Management, Palliative Care, Pediatrics, Pharmaceutical Compounding, Pharmaceutical Industry, Pharmacy Management, Public Health, Psychiatric Care, Specialty Pharmacy Practice, Veterinary pharmacy.
During experiential clerkships, students are expected to participate in the delivery of interprofessional, patient-centered, team-based care (including working with physicians and their students), with the goal of being able to practice as competent, compassionate, problem-solving, and team-oriented pharmacists.