Experiential Program General Information Practitioner Faculty Student Information

Experiential Programs

The College's experiential program not only includes the final year (Pharm.D.) rotation courses, but also includes other professional practice experiences in which a student participates. Information about these programs and their requirements is provided below.

The CARE Program
Early Practice Experiences
Location of IPPEs (P3 yr.) & APPEs (P4 yr.) - Experiential Program Regions
Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPE)
Adv. Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) P4 Senior Experiential Program
Substituting Required Experiential Rotations
Criminal Background Check and Drug Screen Policy
Health Insurance
Immunization Requirements
Liability Insurance
Compliance
Pharmacy Licensure
P3/P4 Relocation Appeals Policy
P3/P4 Relocation Appeals Form
Policy on Coop Campus Voluntary P3 Relocation


Care And Respect for the Elderly (CARE) Program

PHOTOCARE, a service learning program, was implemented in fall 1999. All first year pharmacy students are required to participate in this academic yearlong program.

The purpose of the program is to provide student participants the opportunity to improve the quality of life of elderly patients, and learn more about the elderly in order to provide pharmaceutical care to this population in the future.

Each student is assigned to an assisted-living facility, and subsequently assigned to one or two residents in the facility. Students visit “their” resident(s) a minimum of six times each semester to provide social support, improve their communication skills, and observe visible symptoms of disease states, and side effects of medications. Students also observe at least one scheduled “Med Pass” to multiple residents, and attend multiple one-hour discussion sessions during the academic year either as a group of the whole or in groups of 10. At the conclusion of the spring semester, each student is required to give a case presentation on their assigned resident using a modified SOAP format. P-2 and P-3 student facilitators and faculty evaluate student performance during the discussion sessions.

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Early Practice Experiences

Students are required to gain 200 hours of pharmacy practice experience between the end of the first professional year and prior to the beginning of the P4 senior experiential year.

The goal of the Early Practice Experience is to expose students to entry level pharmacy practice through working in a pharmacy practice site. The expected outcome is students who perform at a higher level in their didactic and laboratory work, are better prepared to enter introductory and advanced pharmacy practice experiences, and who may make a more informed career decision.

Students will complete a minimum of 200 hours in either a community or a hospital pharmacy prior to the start of the P4 senior experiential year. Students are encouraged to gain more than 200 hours of pharmacy practice experience in a variety of practice settings.

  1. This experience:
    1. may begin the summer following the first professional year1, and only after the student has obtained a student pharmacist-intern card from the Texas State Board of Pharmacy.
    2. may occur on either a full-time or part-time basis, during the school year, the summer, or semester breaks.
    3. must be gained under the supervision of a Texas State Board of Pharmacy (TSBP)-approved preceptor1. A petition may be submitted to waive this requirement should the student be selected for a summer internship that occurs outside the state of Texas.
    4. may be obtained either through paid employment, volunteer work, or competitive summer/fall internships (as long as they occur under a TSBP-certified preceptor; OR by petition).
    5. is the sole responsibility of the student to obtain.
    6. must be completed two weeks before the first day of the first rotation of the P4 senior experiential year. Students who do not complete early practice experience hours prior to the deadline will not be allowed to progress to the senior year internship.

  2. General expectations for this experience will be provided by the college. It will be the responsibility of the student to meet these expectations.

  3. Fifty (50) hours of credit toward this experience will be granted if the student has achieved over 500 hours of pharmacy employment prior to the summer following the first professional year.2 This includes pre-pharmacy and first-year employment; however, it does not include PHR 249 Introduction to Pharmacy shadowing, service-learning, or other experiences, or hours gained in PHR 176P Experiential Pharmacy Practice and Patient Counseling.

  4. All 200 hours of required experience will be met if the student has worked as a certified pharmacy technician for at least 200 hours.2

  5. This experience does not replace any of the currently required Introductory or Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences.3

  6. This experience is a programmatic rather than a curricular requirement. The office of the Assistant Dean for Experiential and Professional Affairs will obtain student hour sheets for the required 200 hours and certify these hours prior to the internship year, and also to TSBP, upon graduation.

  7. 1If the hours gained are to count as internship hours with TSBP, this stipulation is necessary.
    2All previous work experience must be verified through a standard college form.
    3A revised mechanism for 3placing out 2 of either the community or hospital rotation may or may not exist. Additional details about the Early Practice Experience are available here.

Location of IPPEs (P3 year) and APPEs (P4 year) - Experiential Program Regions

All students, excluding University of Texas El Paso and University of Texas Pan American cooperative program students, are assigned to a region for the P4 senior experiential year. The P4 APPE regions include:

Austin/Temple/Waco
Dallas/Fort Worth
El Paso
Galveston/Houston
Rio Grande Valley
San Antonio

(The college reserves the right to add or delete experiential regions at any time based upon resources.)

The number of positions available in each region varies depending upon contractual arrangements with practice facilities in that region. Since positions are limited in the Austin region, the majority of students are assigned to complete the pharmacy practice experiences in regions other than Austin/Temple/Waco. Students will be given the opportunity, near the end of the P1 year, to rank all available regions in order of preference. Assignments will be made by a computer generated random number sequencing process that takes into account student preferences. The timing of this process allows students, once assignments are made, to make housing and other arrangements. Students should consider all region assignments as final.

By virtue of region assignment for the P4 year, students are simultaneously assigned and must relocate to affiliated campuses immediately following the end of the P2 year in May. Students assigned to Austin/Temple/Waco, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Galveston/Houston will remain in Austin. Students assigned to San Antonio will relocate to The University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio for the two IPPE courses as well as didactic and laboratory courses during the P3 year. University of Texas El Paso and University of Texas Pan American cooperative program students will return to their home campuses at the same time.

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The Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPE)

Information coming soon.


The P4 Senior Experiential Program Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE)

Students accumulate the majority of the internship hours required for licensure through the APPE courses which occur during the last year of the curriculum. Additional hours are gained in problem-based, interactive experience courses during the P1-P3 years (IPPEs and others).

PHOTO

Responding to the requirements of a "health care team" concept of patient care services, The University of Texas College of Pharmacy has developed pharmacy practices experiences at The University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, The University of Texas at El Paso, and at affiliated pharmacies and institutions in Austin, Temple, Waco, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth, El Paso, Galveston, Houston, San Antonio, and the Rio Grande Valley.

The Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences during the P4 year provide the UT pharmacy student with intensive involvement in ongoing professional pharmacy services; interaction with fellow students in nursing, medicine, and other disciplines; opportunities to measure one's true capacity for professional achievement in a variety of innovative patient care environments; as well as opportunities to pursue special interests--a truly interesting, exciting and challenging adventure.

A description of some, but not all, of the APPEs offered in each of the regions can be found at https://utdirect.utexas.edu/phirst/rotation_list.WBX (UT EID required).

 

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P4 Students will begin APPEs in early July, and will complete the Pharm.D. program the following May. This program is a full-time practical experience (seven six-week full-time rotations) program during which the student spends the entire length of the P4 year away from campus.

Progression to the P4 APPE courses may take place only if the student has completed all requirements for progression (i.e. successful completion of all required didactic and laboratory coursework prior to the P4 courses. If, for some reason, the student's academic progression changes, it is the student's responsibility to contact an advisor in the Office of Student Affairs to make the necessary changes. Students failing any courses subsequent to the region assignment process but prior to the P3 year will be delayed and may be assigned to a different experiential region depending on availability. Questions regarding progression or region assignments should be directed to the Office of Student Affairs.

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Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs)

Pharm.D. students will participate in seven required APPE rotations. Core rotations including two acute care rotations, one advanced community and one advanced institutional practice rotation; one selective (focused on patient care) rotation, and two elective rotations. Rotations are supervised by preceptor-faculty of The University of Texas as approved by the Texas State Board of Pharmacy (TSBP), or college faculty. Internship hours gained are applied to the TSBP requirement for licensure. All TSBP internship requirements for licensure are fulfilled as a part of the College of Pharmacy curriculum.

The APPEs are intended to ensure that the student gains the best possible professional practice experience. Student activities, assignments, and projects are designed to develop contemporary clinical practitioners able to meet the increasingly complex health care and drug therapy needs of patients.

During the APPEs, a student's schedule may vary with each rotation. A minimum time commitment of 44-50 hours per week is common to all rotations. Thus, it is not recommended that a student plan to have outside employment while in the experiential program. Each student should take this into account when doing his or her financial planning. Financial and other forms of assistance needed during the P4 year (APPEs) should be sought early in the curriculum. Loans and scholarships are available through the Office of Student Financial Services as well as the College of Pharmacy.

Related to the discussion of hours is not only the number involved, but also the need to plan for extended hours during any given APPE rotation. The rotation day may begin as early as 6 a.m. and may last until late evening hours and, in some instances, require overnight or weekend call. Adequate child and other dependent care must be obtained prior to the start of rotations to ensure that interns can be at the rotation site during the hours required.

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Substituting Required APPE Rotations

If a student can demonstrate competency, through examination and references, in either advanced community pharmacy practice or advanced hospital (institutional) pharmacy practice, the college curriculum allows that student to "place out" of either, but not both these rotations. The optional rotation which is then substituted for either the community or institutional experience will depend on practice opportunities that are available in the region to which the student is assigned and must qualify as a selective experience. The process to "place out" begins with the Assistant Dean for Experiential Programs in the fall semester of the third professional year.

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Requirements to Begin IPPEs and APPEs

Health Insurance is required of all students in the P3 and P4 years to cover treatment for injuries they may sustain and diseases they may contract while in these courses. The Student Health Insurance Plan offers optional low-cost insurance for students who are not covered by other programs, and covers students in all internship regions. Information about the plan is available from University Health Services and the website www.studentresources.com. Other options for health insurance may include coverage on a parent's or spouse's existing policy.

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Immunization Requirements

Please see www.utexas.edu/pharmacy/general/experiential/student/immunization.html for a current listing.

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Liability Insurance

All students are required to purchase liability insurance coverage during each year of the pharmacy program through enrollment in the college-endorsed malpractice insurance plan. The plan year under this policy is September 1 through August 31, OR when the student completes the curriculum if prior to August 31 of the coverage year. Under the definition of malpractice, coverage includes: error, omission, or negligence in the performance of duties as an intern.

The college-endorsed student liability insurance policy DOES NOT cover students practicing as pharmacy technicians, serving as pharmacist-interns outside of the college's program, or graduates continuing their internship status prior to licensure. An extension of this policy can be purchased directly from the provider after college coverage has expired. Additional information is available in the Office of Student Affairs.

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Compliance

Students must comply with the following before progressing to the IPPE and APPE experiential courses:

  1. completion of all required and elective pharmacy coursework and programmatic requirements to date.
  2. immunizations as required by the Texas Administrative Code, Title 25, Health Services, 97.63, and have been screened for tuberculosis per the attached policy Immunizations Requirements, College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin.
  3. payment of liability insurance for coverage of $2million/$4million.
  4. possession of a current Texas State Board of Pharmacy internship card.
  5. participation in a criminal history check and drug screen as outlined in the attached policy Criminal Background Check and Drug Screen Policy, The University of Texas College of Pharmacy.
  6. successful completion of the American Heart Association BLS for Healthcare Providers (CPR and AED).
  7. health insurance coverage.
  8. completion of training modules in both HIPAA and bloodborne pathogens.

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Pharmacy Licensure

The Texas State Board of Pharmacy (TSBP) is the state agency that registers and regulates interns,and licenses all applicants for pharmacy licensure in the State of Texas. It consists of members who are appointed by the Governor and serve overlapping terms. It is located at the William P. Hobby Bldg., Suite 3-600, 333 Guadalupe, Box 21, Austin, TX 78701-3942, 512/305-8000. The Executive Director is Ms. Gay Dodson.

During the last year of the pharmacy curriculum all pharmacy students make application to the Texas State Board of Pharmacy to take the North American Pharmacy Licensure Examination (NAPLEX®) and the Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Exam (MPJETM), which, if passed, result in licensure. The application fees currently total $540 but are subject to change by the board.


To request additional information, please send email to:
Jennifer Ridings-Myhra
Assistant Dean for Experiential and Professional Affairs
William McIntyre
Associate Dean for Clinical Programs
Arlyn Kloesel
Shadowing Program Director
Anda Wynn
Administrative Associate
Sherrie Bendele
IPPE Program Coordinatore

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Last Reviewed: February 2, 2012

College Information

Mailing Address:
College of Pharmacy
The University of Texas
at Austin
1 University Station A1900
Austin, TX, USA
78712-0120

Email Address: pharmacy
@www.utexas.edu

Phone:
1-512-471-1737


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