OVERVIEW

Pharmacy is a health profession that deals with various aspects of drug production, dispensing and administration to ensure the safe and effective use of drugs in humans and animals. Pharmacists prepare and dispense prescribed medications and their contraindications. They also advise patients about the use of both prescribed and over-the-counter drugs.

The scope of Pharmacy practice is wide ranging from traditional roles such as compounding and dispensing medications to more modern services related to health care, including clinical services, reviewing medications for safety and efficacy, and providing drug information. Pharmacists communicate directly with physicians to correctly deliver medications.

Pharmacists also counsel patients on over the counter medications and provide information on home health care supplies and various other health care products. Areas of specialization of pharmacy include psychiatry, intravenous nutrition support, oncology, geriatrics, diabetes, fertility, HIV, psychiatry, nuclear pharmacy, compounding of specialty medications, pharmacotherapy, regulatory pharmacy and industrial pharmacy.

Areas of specialization of pharmacy include psychiatry, intravenous nutrition support, oncology, geriatrics, diabetes, fertility, HIV, psychiatry, nuclear medicine, compounding of specialty medications, and pharmacotherapy,regulatory pharmacy and Industrial pharmacy
 

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

Students, after going through the Doctor of Pharmacy programme, are expected to function effectively:
a. As pharmaceutical care providers who can:

      i. Demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge base to support pharmaceutical care.

      ii. Observe and understand the signs and symptoms of diseases and drug toxicity as they relate to and impact drug therapy.

      iii. Develop an adequate database from information extracted from patients and their medical and pharmacy records in evaluating                  drug therapy

        iv. Organize and present an assessment of the patient’s healthrelated problems.

         v. Define realistic therapeutic objectives, identify subjective and objective outcomes of drug therapy and recommend a pharmacotherapeutic plan based on patient- specific information.

         vi. .Identify, prevent and solve drug therapy issues by recommending the use of appropriate drug(s) or dosage regimen(s). vii. Assess drug efficacy and safety through the evaluation of appropriate physical and laboratory 
parameters.

         viii. Effectively communicate and develop professional relationships with patients and other health care practitioners for optimal patient care.

Students will be introduced to natural sciences and some of the social sciences as University Required Courses to prepare them for studies in the pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences in the professional phase of the curriculum. Exposure of students to the natural and social sciences is to provide them with the common and universally accepted body of knowledge that all educated men and women are expected to acquire, irrespective of their proposed vocation or profession.

This offers students the opportunity to develop an understanding of the relationships among the arts and sciences and to apply that understanding to human concerns in their professional and personal lives. Professional PhaseIn the second semester of year four to the end of year five, students will take courses in the pharmaceutical sciences in the modular format.

Students will extensively study each organ system, the pathophysiology of the organ, the medicinal chemistry of drugs used to treat the respective organ dysfunction, and the pharmacotherapy of the diseased organ. The student is also required to complete a research project in the fifth year in one of the elective course.

The professional practice experiences take the form of:

i. Introductory Professional/Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPEs) and ii. Advanced Professional/Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs). The IPPEs are designed to take place at the end of each academic year of the first four years of the programme and are aimed at complementing the didactic curriculum of the programme. The IPPEs allows students to have experiences in community, institutional and industry/regulatory/ leadership settings. 

In the Sixth and final year, students will undertake eight (8) five-credit of APPEs (including two (2) electives) which may be selected from a variety of medicine subspecialties, regulatory pharmacy, industrial pharmacy or pharmaceutical sciences (academia/research). The subspecialties in medicine include areas such as neurology, oncology, nephrology, nutrition, critical care, psychiatry, infectious disease, and pediatrics. Rotations are offered on a full-time basis, each lasting five weeks, including vacations..

ASSESSMENT
Students will be assessed based on completed assignments and examinations in:

i. Didactic course work and

ii. Professional/Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPEs and APPEs).

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Further to the General Regulations regarding admission into the University of Ghana, admission to the School of Pharmacy for the Doctor of Pharmacy Programme shall follow an entrance examination as well as an interview of eligible candidates with the following backgrounds:

a. WASSCE: Must have credit passes (at least Grade C6) in three core subjects, namely, English, Mathematics and Integrated Science, and in three Elective subjects namely Biology, Chemistry and either Physics or Mathematics. Additionally, candidates shall be required to pass core Social Studies.

b. SSCE: Must have credit passes (at least Grade D) in three core subjects, namely, English, Mathematics and Integrated Science, and in three Elective subjects namely Biology, Chemistry and either Physics.

c. GCE (Cambridge) – ‘A’ Levels: Three (3) ‘A’ Level subjects comprising Chemistry, Biology and either Physics or Mathematics. In addition, they must have at least five (5) passes including English and Mathematics at the Cambridge ‘O’ Level.

d. Any other external qualifications which have equivalences to the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the  GCE (Cambridge) – ‘A’ Levels including:

    i. INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE (IB): Applicants must have at least Grade 5 in Chemistry, and either Biology or Physics at the Higher Level. In addition, applicants must have at least grade 4 in English Language/Literature (SL) and Mathematics SL and at least grade C for the third science at the IGCSE or equivalent.

TUITION METHODS
Lectures (Audio and/visual), class discussions and presentations, practical tutorials, e-learning (SAKAI) as well as hospital and community pharmacy rotations.

CAREER PROSPECTS

The Doctor of Pharmacy programme is structured to ensure that upon successful completion, graduates from the School will satisfy the current requirement of the Pharmacy Council of Ghana for entry into the pre-registration training programme for registration as Pharmacists in Ghana. They will, thus, be eligible to practice as hospital and community pharmacists, industrial and regulatory pharmacists, or, after appropriate post-graduate training, as pharmaceutical scientists in academia and research establishments..

          ix. Select, critically evaluate and apply information from medical and pharmacy literature as well as clinically relevant research to impact patient therapy.

           x. Demonstrate a high sense of professional maturity, commitment and ethics.

b. As an academic, researcher or industrialist who:

          i. Is motivated to work in academia to train the next generation of pharmaceutical scientists.

          ii. Appreciates research and can play leadership role in drug development research/ production of new therapeutic substances.

          iii. Can be a leader in drug manufacturing/ industrial enterprises.

c. In regulatory affairs to:

        i. Enforce existing regulations of Pharmacy Practice.

        ii. Formulate new regulations and standard operating procedures to ensure patients safety.

INDUSTRY/GLOBAL TRENDS

There is a shift in Pharmacy toward a profession-wide, patient-Centreed practice. Due to this shift, pharmacists are becoming more involved in-patient care. Since prescription drugs are becoming more complex, and the number of clients taking multiple medications are increasing, the potential for dangerous drug interactions are growing.

Pharmacists are therefore needed to counsel patients on the proper use of medication, assist in drug selection and dosage, and monitor complex drug regimens.The Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum prepares graduates for enhanced patient care. Emphasis is now placed on expanded and integrated course work in the basic and applied sciences, information technology, literature evaluation, and population-based management.

COMPONENTS OF THE PROGRAMME

The program is based upon many curricular endpoints and consists of:
i. Two (2) years of pre-professional study (natural and social sciences) and

ii. Four (4) years of professional studies (three years theory and one-year advanced Professional/ Pharmacy Practice Experiences).